Laura Ingalls

Laura Ingalls is our cat with a substantial overbite. We call her "Bucky" and marvel at the fact that if she's on her back one can see in to the roof of her mouth. This has caused problems. Her bottom teeth poked the roof of her mouth and when Dee took her to the vet, she wrote her complaint as "stinky head". Yep, Laura had an infection from those teeth puncturing the roof of her mouth. So, those teeth were filed down.

Miss Laura is about three years old now. Turns out, there has been infection raging under those teeth for a while now. It actually burst through her chin with sores. That was pretty gross. So, today Laura went to the vet to have those teeth removed. Stephanie Vison is her vet. Dr. Vinson is terrific - the Green Hills Vet Clinic is very professional.

Warnings were issued, with those teeth removed, Laura might live with her tongue slightly protruding. Instructions were given - if Laura's not going to be able to have a quality recovery, take the path to ease her future pain. Many, many cats need a good home. We waited with fear and hope, that Laura Ingalls would be okay. She is. With those teeth removed, she may have to eat softer food, at least for a while, but she'll be holding shoulders again soon. Bucky is on the mend.

Dee selected Laura at the Humane Society. She crawled onto Dee and fell asleep - she was sweet. She rarely makes eye contact but will climb onto your shoulder if given the slightest opportunity. She's a shoulder holder. She'll walk around on Dee's shoulders and wrap herself like a stole.

She doesn't really play. When she does play, it's awkward. She wants to be held. When Dee was at Army camp for three months, I made a special effort to hold Laura Ingalls. Normally, I'll pet her but I tried to hold her more often. Really, I made a concentrated effort. She sleeps on the bed most of the day and doesn't run around too much. The exception is if the basement door is open, Laura scrambles down into the cellar. I'm not sure why.

They sent her home with a couple days worth of pain medicine. I'm glad. Now, if we can only administer them! Trying to medicate a cat - well, you may have seen the pictures. Luckily, we're now using syringes and shooting meds down her bucky gullet. So far, her tongue is inside her mouth!