Hello there! It’s been awhile!
Too much to catch up on so we’ll just talk about Mouse.
Mouse, our front porch feral, and I have been slowly making friends. Recently, after over a YEAR of trying he’s even allowed me to slowly walk up and pet him. I knew that the time was coming that I’d be able to grab him in order to take him into the vet for a neuter and rabies vaccination. But any sudden moves on my part would still either have him taking a swipe at me or him running off.
Admittedly I’ve been dragging my feet on catching him and getting things taken care of, but yesterday morning fate took things out of my hands.
When I got up in the morning he was nowhere to be found which wasn’t really unusual, sometimes he’d disappear for days at a time. But he showed up around lunchtime not quite acting himself. When I went out to check on him I noticed a bit of blood on his left front paw and he didn’t seem to want to move at all. Upon a closer look I could see that the paw was very swollen and I noticed that his back left paw also looked swollen and bloody.
I got my phone and snuck over to see if I could take a photo of the paw as he was laying on his side. What it showed was that he needed to get to the vet asap!
Thankfully my local vet’s office was able to squeeze him in that afternoon and I was able to catch him in my wildlife net without much struggle at all.
I had no idea how he would react to being handled but I was shocked and proud of how well he behaved at the vet’s. He only hissed a little bit when they took him out of the crate to sedate him. That’s when I knew he was REALLY hurting.
The vet offered to go ahead and neuter him since he was already under sedation to have his paws cleaned and sewn up. What a blessing that was!
Less than an hour later they brought him back and told me that his paw was severely lacerated and he had punctures clear through the top on the front paw. His back paw had a broken toe with a nail that needed amputation and punctures.
But the saddest sight was his poor little nugget sacs!
He was mighty proud of his ASSets before all of this!
He is currently being housed downstairs in the ‘beaver room’ while he recovers. As you can see he still doesn’t feel very well, but he is being a VERY good patient so far! I suspect that may change as he starts feeling better, but I hope not.
Poor Mousie. I don’t know what got ahold of him to do that much damage but I’m glad he got away. Hopefully the lack of testosterone and this horrible experience will make him want to keep himself on the front porch from now on and not go wandering looking for girls or trouble!