I was awoken this morning to the sounds of my husband seeming to be upset. He called out "oh no" a couple of times. It sounded like he had forgotten to set his alarm and was distressed about over sleeping. Just an FYI, my hubby is not an overly emotional man. Its not that he doesn't show it, he himself has admitted that he often doesn't feel as deeply as he thinks he should. I then heard, honey you have to get up. I remember thinking, no I don't, I don't have to work for a while, but I sat up anyway. He was holding Tweedle and he said that she had gotten into some heating oil... At this I was immediately awake. We recently ran out of oil and was with out heat for two days. I saw twee's little white paw was wet and red, and heard her smacking her lips as if something very bad tasting was in there. I prompted my husband to get the dishwashing detergent and told him to turn up the heat in the bathroom with the bath tub. Washing Tweedle is NO easy feet. She has a VERY strong will, and does not scruff at all. She was totally not happy about it. I set the hubby off to search the internet for the "what to do". It was 5 am, so the local vet wasn't open. I filled the tub with warm water and set tweedle on an upturned laundry basket. I calmly talked to her and told her that she needed to work with me. I got to the point where she was wet and soapy when she decided she had had enough. She started bucking and trying to climb the walls. Again I tried to calm her, but she turned her head and put her mouth around my arm and bit down enough to leave an impression. I put her on the basket again and again tried to sooth her with my words, telling her that I just needed to rinse her and we'd be done. She was fine with her back end being in the water, but when I tried to get her front paws down, she again decided that she wasn't having any of that. I got a cup and started rinsing her while she stood on the basket. That worked. I washed her with dish soap and cat soap. fun fun. Afterward I couldn't tell if she still smelled or if the smell was just in the house. I knew she ingested some, and couldn't find anything on the web, so I called the emergency clinic. They said to wash her with dish soap - which I did and just to keep an eye on her and watch for vomiting or other signs of distress. So we fed her and she ate. She seems grumpy, and is holding that paw up when sitting down. So I'll be calling the vet in a little bit to see if there is anything they want to do for her.
Hubby initinally was asking twee why she would want to put her paw in oil. I kept my tone of voice light and explained that is what she does. Talking to tweedle in that cute kitty voice, I did my best not to blame anyone for the incident. Hubby should have known better than to leave something like that out. The other cats wouldn't bother it, but twee is known for her stupidity. She's a cute little thing, but not the brightest. I asked Hubby what he did with the oil after things had calmed down, and he said he put it outside. (just placed the bucket outside, not dumped it outside) so I joked that we'd now get wild animals covered with oil. Hopefully he takes care of that this evening and puts it where it belongs.
