Tuppence and Torture

Torture, act of inflicting very severe pain.

I can hardly believe what happened to our cat, Tuppence/Tuppy. After three visits to the vet last week, we now know what happened to her, but have no understanding as to why someone would do it to her.

I noticed blood on the floor, then saw that Tuppy had nylon thread hanging out of her tail, about two inches from the tip. The only thing we could think of, was that somehow she got a fish hook in her tail and it had worked it's way in with thread attached; how else would nylon thread get in her tail?

So we took her to the vet. He anaesthetised her, slit her tail open and there inside was a lot of nylon string/thread going backwards and forwards for about five inches. The vet said he couldn't get it out and at that point did not know how far it went up inside the tail along the bone. He asked me if she'd ever had an operation on her tail, and I said no. He said the best thing was to cut her tail off. So what else could we do.

I left her overnight and the deed was done. The next day I picked her up and asked about how and why. Well how, is that someone did it to her and it had been done a while ago, by someone they suggested who had some knowledge of the procedure it would need to do that. Plus the fact that we never noticed it. Her fur must have covered it. Eventually, the thread had worked its' way out.

I have been racking my brain as to how could someone do this, where and when? I can only think it was a while ago, when we lost her for two days. After looking for two days in the neighbourhood we found her. Cowered up under a neighbours shed. We thought she'd had a big fight with a tom cat and become really upset. But now I'm wondering if someone tranquilized her and did this to her. We will never know exactly; and why. Why do people do such things?

She was a little upset with things for a day, but is back to her happy self. She doesn't truly understand that she has lost a lot of her lovely tail. But she is well. We will not be letting her out so much.

In Britain we always let our cats out, cats love to go out, and then come home. Over here, in the States, people tend to keep them in, all the time. Needless to say I will be keeping them in much more. And will let them out in the day, when we are around.

Also it was a very large expense for us. $525.00

How Tuppy's tail used to look.