Davis is about to lose her tail.

Warning: if you have a weak stomach or are sensitive to animal stories, do not read this post.

I just got back from taking Davis (one of our two cats) to the emergency veterinary hospital. While petting her tonight, I felt something ... moist ... on her tail. I thought it was stool (a la Avery - our other cat often gets stool particles stuck in his enormous hairy tail), but saw it was blood when I looked at my hand. Ryan examined her tail and found that approximately 1.5 inches of skin had been peeled back. We called the local emergency hospital and they said to bring her in. There, the vet informed me that it's a 'degloving' wound and may have actually happened yesterday, based on the dried edges of the wound. Poor kitty. We had no idea. :( The vet also said the tail wounds are poor healers, and she recommended amputating the tail from just below the wound (about halfway up the tail). She did leave it up to our regular vet's discretion, though. She said the wound was not life-threatening and could wait until morning. They shaved the area a little (not much - Davis wasn't cooperative), applied antibiotic ointment, as well as gave her an antibiotic shot and pain medicine. With strict instructions to call our regular vet first thing in the morning, we are home.

I'll spare you any photos. I had a hard time not gagging at the vet hospital during the exam tonight. Right now Davis seems to be doing well, if you don't notice the dangling length of tail. The pain medicine might make her disoriented, so we're not supposed to let her near stairs tonight. We're going to keep her in my computer room, just to be safe. Even with the baby gate closed at the top of the stairs, I'm afraid she might try to jump over the banister like she usually does and fall and hurt herself worse.

I'm thinking I am so not ready to be a parent. Yes, I know we have an 18-month old daughter (today, actually - happy eighteen-month birthday to Katrina!). But I'm so emotional about my cat's tail! I can't imagine what I will be like when Katrina has her first real wound.