Homeless
Chapter Eight
When they get back to the clinic, Dr. Mac warns Sunita to stand at the far end of the room before she starts to treat the first cat. Sunita thinks she’s being too careful. The cat is in a cage, after all. Dr. Mac sedates the cat, just like with Tiger, but it’s easier to do with the special Animal Control cage. The cat protests with a meow, but quickly relaxes it’s the medicine takes effect.
Dr. Mac opens the cage, and lifts out the patient. The cat is crawling with fleas. The first patient is a scrawny, light gray male cat. Dr. Mac checks his heart, lungs, and temperature, and feels his body for bumps or bone problems. She comments that he has bad breath. He probably has an infection in his mouth somewhere. They’ll need anesthetic for that. Dr. Mac squeezes antiseptic cream onto the gauze pad and wipes it on an infected swollen paw. Then, Dr. Mac draws blood for tests and vaccinates the cat for rabies and other cat diseases. She adds a long-acting antibiotic injection to fight off infection. Then she sprays on a flea killer. Once he’s hydrated, she can operate on him. Dr. Mac says after three days living at the clinic, he’ll be ready to leave.
As Sunita puts the sedated cat in a cage in the recovery room, she peeks on Tiger. He’s wide awake, his ears twitching as he watches Sunita. Dr. Gabe, the clinic’s associate vet, walks in holding an injured parrot. He comments that Tiger has quite a reach. Sunita shouldn’t get too close. Sunita asks what’s wrong with the parrot, and Dr. Gabe says that he keeps flying into the window in his family’s living room whenever the mailman walks up the sidewalk. The X-ray shows that he doesn’t have a broken wing, so his folks will be picking him up soon. Dr. Gabe’s prescription is to either move his cage or close the curtains.
Sunita peeks again through the metal bars of Tiger’s cage. His front paws are tucked under him, and his I.V. is gone. He looks much better than he did yesterday. Dr. Mac must have bathed and groomed him while he was under anesthetic for surgery. He looks like a different cat. Sunita can almost imagine what he would look like stretched out on her bed.
After Dr. Gabe leaves, Tiger wails at Sunita. She can’t help but try to touch him. She reaches her hand a little toward cage. Tiger sniffs the air, then pulls himself forward until his head is against the bars. He presses his nose against them so he can smell Sunita’s fingers. Sunita thinks that’s a good sign; he wants to be friends. He meows again. Sunita knows it’s wrong, but she can’t help it. Tiger needs some love. Besides, he is still recovering from his injury. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t hurt her.
Sunita unlocks the latch and opens the cage door a tiny bit. Tiger doesn’t move. Sunita opens it farther and slips her hand inside. Tiger leans forward so that Sunita can scratch his head. Sunita moves her fingertips down the back of his head. Socrates loves to be scratched like that. Suddenly, Tiger stops mid-purr, whips his head around, and locks his teeth on Sunita’s hands between her thumb and first finger. It is a very hard bite.
Sunita yelps, and shakes her hand to get him to release. Tiger pulls back and Sunita slams the door closed and hooks the latch. She’s never been bitten before. The bite is deep and bloody and it really hurts. Tears fill her eyes. In his cage, Tiger licks his front paw as if nothing happened.
Dr. Gabe runs up the hall. He heard Sunita’s shout. Sunita hides her hand, but Dr. Gabe knows something happened. Sunita knows she has to show him, so she holds out her hand. Dr. Gabe grabs some paper towels to clean up the blood. Her hand is throbbing and it feels hot. Dr. Gabe slips on a pair of latex blood gloves and washes the wound over the sink. He says they’ll have to call her parents. He knows it hurts, but they have to kill the germs.
Sunita asks him to not call her parents. All she needs is a bandaid. If her mother sees the cat bite, she’ll never let Sunita near a cat again. Gabe turns off the water and dries her hand. He says she doesn’t understand. Animal bites have to be checked out by a doctor. A people doctor. Sunita has to go to the hospital.