Ah shit.

Well, last evening I was sitting upstairs when I heard a minor altercation between the cats on the spiral staircase. I heard a 'thud', which usually means that Brother fell down the gap between the stair and the floor again. I didn't hear anything else and he's been fine after taking such falls.

Unfortunately, it wasn't him, it was SaraBelle who fell.

I found this out later when I went down to eat dinner and watch some TV. SaraBelle tried to move out of my way but couldn't move easily. She yowled every time she took a step. She was obviously favoring one back leg and wasn't used to it.

My first thought was that the cancer had finally affected the motor control to her hindquarters. I assumed this would be her last night on earth. I called the vet and dialed the pager and sat back to await the return call. SaraBelle curled up into my lap and stayed their like a lump while I awaited the return call. It never came. During this time I put 2 and 2 together and realized that she must have fallen, hence the sudden onset of her being in pain.

I realized that she needed treatment, so I carefully placed her in her carry case and took her out to the Penn emergency vet hospital, out at 39th & Spruce.

I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say I got there around 9:00PM and was finally able to leave at 3:00AM.

SaraBelle seems to have a fractured hip. There's not much we can do about it since surgery would probably kill her ( 4 hours anesthesia). The only cure is to try and keep her rested and let her heal naturally. I got some opiates for her pain, but what I really need is some way to keep her from moving around much. She doesn't seem inclined to go dancing, but she does need to use the litter box, and I need some way to keep food and water near here such that the other cats don't try to eat it.

*sigh* Poor little thing.