3 King's Day Brings Terror to the Kruse Household

Jeff headed out to hike and windsurf in Guanica and I got to work in the yard on 3 King's Day. It all started out great until...I opened the kitchen screen door so one of the cat's could go out and SMACK it slammed just as another one (Chicken) was jetting out. I didn't think anything of it until I opened the door and saw a Daniel Boone style tail sitting there on the lawn. I was incredibly mortified and not sure what I was really looking at. I picked it up and it was a few inches of fur and no bones. Then I burst into horrified tears and realized the cat wasn't there. Crying, gurgling, I yelled out his name and he wasn't coming. I headed up to where I thought he was going and didn't see him...I tried to compose myself and called Jeff so he could come home to join in the hunt. My imagination was giving me visions of my beloved cat running to hide and die trailing a stream of blood behind him. I didn't see any blood but knew this was not good.Jeff was in a no reception zone windsurfing away...and I couldn't find the cat. I gathered my composure and went for the food bin. Shake shake shake and all the cats came down from the hill, up from the valley or out of the house to get a meal and Chicken (the injured one) appeared as well. He stayed an arm length away rolling in the dirt and didn't seem phased at all. I picked him up and put him in a bedroom and started calling vets. Closed. Closed. Damn it...what is 3 King's Day anyway? Finally I called the guys in Cabo Rojo who saved Bepo from certain death and they were there for emergencies. This qualified. Of course there was a full house and they wanted me to come and wait forever. I gave them my file number (they've sterilized 7 of our cats) and decided that 3 pm would be the best time to bring him (it was noon when it happened).

This is Chicken's scalped tail - no skin and no puff of fur. I was too freaked to photograph the coon skin hat part.

He is climbing the ladder, sitting on my lap, trying to play in the closet and generally not caring about his tail. I had all kinds of stuff out for painting and he was getting into it. He didn't lick it, but he did flick it around as if the fur were still there. This is not good. He could get a bone infection or the tail could just die and continue down. This was just soooo awful I can't even relate how I felt/feel.

The vet amputated the scalped part plus a little extra to get a skin flap for the stump. They shaved it and now his tail looks like a corn dog. The other cats were afraid of him when he came home - the surgery was finished but he wasn't awake yet and we preferred to have him with us. Today he is meowzing and climbing the screens and wrecking havoc trying to get out of the house. He had the cone on his head but he took that off as soon as he woke up and since he isn't licking the stump we'll leave it off. The other cats aren't hanging around because we have the house closed up so Chicken won't escape. They don't like being in the porch unless they have house access too! We'll keep him in until he has at least 3 days of drugs in him in case he decides to take off for a night and after that we'll have to free him.

So here is the new screen door slower downer. While Chicken was in surgery we got this device so the door will never slam again and I will never ever again encounter this scenario again! Poor Chicken!