The kitty and the toad

This story has a happy ending!  But I had a rough night!

Last night my lovely boyfriend added the final touches to Connors' "Grand Cat Palace" and added the cat flap.  Connor was very excited that he could come in and go out as he pleased!  The food and litter was promptly moved outside, and he was all set.

At about 9pm, we were just watching the end of Spicks and Specks, when I heard the cat come in and what sounded like paper being rustled.  I thought "oh he's playing with one of his paper balls - he must be happy".  Then he ran past us and up the stairs... where he sat and looked at us and shook his head.  When I looked up at him I though "oh how cute - he's still got the ball in his mouth!"... then I realised that the paper ball was actually FOAM... he was foaming at the mouth... and what I had thought was paper rustling had actually been him shaking his head and the froth hitting the floor.

Well I jumped up in an immediate panic!  The only thing I know of that turns an animal into an instant froth-maker is cane toad poison.  I whisked him up, ran to the kitchen sink, got BF to hold the cat down in a headlock, grabbed a syringey thing (no needle of course - it used to contain cat medicine in a paste) and squirted water into his mouth over and over, much to Connor's disgust.  It was actually heartbreaking to hear his cries - he was obviously in shock, and yowling, kicking, scratching, foaming, biting me.  Imagine the poor little things fright - he's obviously had a toad come into the enclosure, he's chased it, maybe tried to bite it - got rewarded with poison being squirted into his mouth, only to run inside and get pounded with mouthfuls of water for 10 minutes by his protector - me!!  We washed and washed his mouth and wiped his face, and only when we put him down did I start to freak.  Cane toad poison can kill a small dog, so imagine how scared I was for my poor little 4kg cat!  Freaked out so much I started crying.

Anyway, I rang the 24 hour animal emergency number and they said I had done the right thing, if he was going to show signs of it he would have been convulsing and fitting by now.  So I felt a bit better.  They said I should continue to wipe his mouth out with a wet cloth, getting around the gums and inside of the cheeks etc - yeah right - have you ever tried to do this with a cat?!!!  So poor Connor was tortured once again - BF had started to look like he was a cat himself - he was drenched in water and covered in white cat fur, not to mention all the scratches and bite marks from holding him down.

So we finally ended the torture, and I stayed up with him until about 11pm, which is soooo late for me.  But I had to be sure he was going to be ok.  He seemed to be back to his old self this morning - all I can say is that he was very VERY lucky.  Cane toads are nocturnal so I've decided that I'm only going to let him out into his enclosure during the day.  Most of the websites I've looked at say that cats are very smart and dont usually get struck twice - so hopefully he'll be very wary of toads in the future.

And because of that debacle last night I hardly slept!  So there was no way I could get up to go to gym today.  I've been good with food though, not really even wanted to eat junk so thats good.  Had to drive down the coast today, traffic was horrendous - all I can say is B.L.O.O.D.Y. INDY!  Grrrr

Here's to a better night and day tomorrow!!