Thank you all so much for the well wishes for Buck and the cat (Maureen). This place has such a homey feel to it; I don't think I could ever truly 'leave'.
I probably should say something about what happened to Maureen. Frankly, we just don't know. She lives outside with the other cats (except in the winter) and she's always around. We didn't see her for a couple of days, were getting worried and then the neighbor's son said he had seen her and her tail was messed up.
It took a couple more days before we caught a glimpse of her and he was right. She wouldn't come to us but it was easy to see that she had a real issue with her tail. The whole middle section was hairless and dark. That's about all we could tell.
It turns out she was hiding under the neighbor's house and finally she came out to eat, but still wouldn't let us near her. After a couple of days of this, we finally got a good look at her. The whole middle section of her tail was hairless and the flesh was turning black. It took 2 more days before we got her caught and to the vet. Of course, amputation was the only thing to do. She has about 3 inches of tail left now.
I'm only guessing, but think maybe she came in contact with a high-voltage wire and got a severe electrical burn. That's the only thing that makes sense from the look of her.
Anyway, she's now doing well. She's back to hanging out on the front porch with the other cats and acting like her old self. The only thing is she's gotten a little gun-shy of us since we have to give her antibiotics twice a day and she does NOT like that! She goes back a week from Friday for stitch removal and then should be just fine.
Oh, and about 2 weeks ago we acquired another cat. She's a beautiful very large short-haired solid grey that just showed up one day at feeding time and hasn't left. She's looks to be well taken care of but no one has come looking for her and none of the neighbors know anything about her. I don't know if she just found us or was dropped off here. None of the other cats seem to mind, so she can stay if she wants. She's very tame and let us pet her the first day we saw her.
And, yup, I have been involved with politics lately, which explains my absence. I actually found another YTer on a political forum and that got me to missing coming here. The avatar was a dead giveaway
. I need to do a little lurking around to see what's up but hope to pop in more often. I'm sure you'll all get tired of me all over again soon enough!
Jim