Bob's Big Adventure

14 December 2021

Story #1052

R. Linda:

As if the name fraud wasn't enough, several little glitches in Gabe's life are going on at the same time. Take last night. To some, it might have seemed like no big deal, but to my wife, it was a big deal. 

Around 7:30 last night, she was leaving to pick up our eldest at a Christmas party. She had bought two huge bags of Skittles for the wee one's second-grade gingerbread house project and was told Skittles wouldn't do, get gumdrops. So, the kiddos have inherited the Skittles for a complete sugar high. She decided to leave early to pick up two big bags of gumdrops and pick up the eldest on her way back. 

She wasn't even in the car when she rang me to find a towel because Bob, our bobcat, had a significant chest injury and was bleeding all over the place. I grabbed a towel and ran out to the garage, where she had him cornered. He looked very sheepish and knew he could outmanoeuvre us to the cat door and get away, and he did!

Blood pools were in two places, so I knew this was bad. The blood drops followed him out of the cat door but were lost in the grass. Tonya got a torch (flashlight) from her car, and I got me mobile, and we flashed around the wooded backyard looking for Bob. I was hoping to get the flash of cat eyes in the dark, but nothing, and it was chilly without a coat, so I wanted to find him so I could get back to the warmth of the abode.

After 45 minutes of searching and catching a chill, I found him under the back porch, but he wouldn't come to me. I yelled for Tonya, and between us, we were able to box him in. She had the towel, so she wrapped him up and headed for her car.

"Don't you want to clean the wound first and see how bad it is?" I asked, but she nearly bit me head off that her cat was dying and for moi to find an animal ER on me phone. Ugh. We live in the middle of nowhere, so finding a 24-hour veterinary clinic wasn't easy. I found two, but both were over an hour away. 

She went to the closest one, but they told her they were full and turned her away, which left her aghast that they'd do so. She then drove to the furthest one, and they did take the cat. 

I texted her to let me know what was happening while making arrangements over the mobile with Mam for her to pick up the eldest since she was out and about. Tonya did get back almost instantly, telling me that the cat was fine; the blood wasn't his. Would I go out to the garage and see what animal Bob the Ripper had destroyed?

I took pause because the amount of blood was shocking. I had cleaned the one large pool up, so if she came back with no cat, it wouldn't remind her. Well, I came across a second pool, a smaller amount, but the droplets went from under me Mam's car and out the cat door. Confused, because Bob went out the cat door and I saw nothing else, I looked under the car and in a space that was a junk mess, but found nothing.

 

A second pool of blood

Blood drops

Cat door

Meanwhile, Tonya texted me to say how embarrassed she felt because it wasn't her cat that was injured. The vet tech surmised that the murderer had taken on something bigger and won. Now I've seen Bob in action with chipmunks, mice, moles, and birds, and he is Bob the Ripper. He and his brother save us pest service because THEY ARE A PEST SERVICE. 

I was starting to feel rather proud of our Bob for taking on something bigger than himself when Tonya texted me, "The Vet thinks it was a massive nosebleed."

WHAT? Well, it would have to be massive. The pool I cleaned up was massive, not to mention the other pool of blood and all those droplets! I found no sign of another animal in the garage but one crushed and ancient mouse body that me Mam's car had run over. I assumed THAT was an early Christmas present from one of the cats that they placed under the car tyres just because they could.

Bob came home looking rather smug, enjoying his "cat mom's" attentions and cooing over him. I want to know what caused so much blood. The blood in person was mauve and thick, certainly not chest or heart blood. So maybe he did have a nosebleed, but that was a lot of blood for one fat cat. 

Gabe

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