That's another photo of Max, an extremely large pussycat I've mentioned here before. Max and his mate have taken up near-permanent residence in my backyard. He takes pretty good care of her. Last week, I had to take pretty good care of Max.
I came home, weary from a long day of running-around. I wanted to fall into bed but knew that I needed to finish a script. I wound up doing neither right away. On the way in, I pet Max and found blood on my hand. Max had a deep gash running along his side. It was not only bleeding, it was dirty and infested with ants and other insects.
He didn't seem to be in pain but that's not something that can be ignored. I picked him up (not easy to do) and stuffed him into the infamous trap that I once used to capture another feral friend…in that case, for neutering purposes. Then I drove Max over to Sepulveda Boulevard, where there are a couple of 24-hour veterinary clinics who specialize in charging you an awful lot of money when your pet is ill or injured after normal working hours. I have been there before with strays and it would be cheaper to take an animal to the Mayo Clinic, except that it's too far.
The folks at the place of Sepulveda were quite nice and since it wasn't really "my cat," they didn't charge me the full fee, which would have been roughly the amount of money that Ed McMahon owes. The lady at the desk seemed suspicious that the discount was warranted, saying things like, "Gee, strays are usually so scrawny and he's obviously very well fed." But the vet insisted I get the feral discount. Most bleeding had stopped so they cleaned Max's wound, put in a few stitches and gave him some sort of antibiotic. The vet's assistant theorized that Max had tried to squeeze through a fence and gotten impaled on something.
On their advice, I kept Max in the cage/trap in my garage for the next day or so. He was not happy in there — it made for cramped quarters, him being the size of a Honda Civic — but I think he understood. He's out now, back on all four feet, and he seems to be healing nicely. The experience did not affect his appetite, which is insatiable but does not allow him to eat any food that's been in the dish for over five minutes, even the dry stuff.
And that's the latest on the homeless shelter in my backyard…where last week, I set a new record: I was feeding five stray cats simultaneously. Years ago, I was a partner in a restaurant in Hollywood and I don't think we ever had that much consumption occurring at one time on the premises. Maybe we should have served Friskies Salmon Dinner.