It was the big day for young Rojo today: his appointment with the vets to get neutered1. To be fair, he took it all very well – a lot better than I would!  He seems less bothered by the sudden lack of knackers than by all the attendant inconveniences, like not being able to eat the day before and not being allowed out now.It must be very strange for an animal like that. All of a sudden the cat flap won’t work, which doesn’t stop him from trying it every five minutes. He is starting to get stir-crazy, poor little bugger.
Most worrying is the set of post-operation instructions that the vets gave us. The last bit says:
There are no stitches but please keep an eye on the surgery site – check daily for excessive swelling, oozing, blood or more than a small amount of clear fluid and if the site feels hot. If at all concerned, please ring the surgery.
Given the location of the operation, keeping an eye on the surgery site is not a pleasant prospect. It brings tears to my eyes if I just catch a glance. As for “if the site feels hot”…  will it be enough to just ask him? I do hope so.
- sounds so much better than ‘castrated’ doesn’t it? [↩]
When Mary & Neil got Nipper ‘done’ it was quite an event. It turned out that he was a monorchid (only the one descended ball) but this was only discovered after a little exploratory cutting. Poor Nipper had rather more stitches than normal and they were told not to let the cat jump up onto furniture etc. Neil ended up sleeping on the floor all night with the cat so he wouldn’t jump up and do himself a mischief. Moth was so much easier – girls are just less trouble!
Girls are also more expensive…