The warm bath and the subsequent rub down with an old towel helped her look more cat-like instead of a rumpled mass of flesh.  Her eyes were bright and healthy-looking.  She did not like the bath, but it helped.

I made a soft bed for her to lie on and set it beside the warm wood-burning furnace. I found her old litter box and a nice cushion that she had used in the old days when she was a house cat.  I washed and filled her old dish with food to eat and milk to drink.  She gladly filled her tummy.

It was still not apparent to us how she had gotten hurt. Nor did we realize the extent of her injuries. I went to the basement to check on her quite often.

I caught her grooming herself.  She was actively trying to fix her open sore.  We medicated her her with antibiotics to help her with the healing process. Taking her medicine was not her favorite part of the day, for sure.  But all of these things must have helped her.

In the early days of her recovery, she kept quiet and quite still most of the time. She took time to work briskly at cleaning her wounded leg. The smelly, black-looking flesh transformed into clean, red muscle tissue. I did not understand why she would not leave the wound alone to heal, but later we decided that her active cleaning action removed the infected tissue.

I bathed her a few times.  Following one bath I noticed that her underside was split open.  How that broke my heart!  I could not see how she could heal from that large rip in her hide. We noted a protruding bone in her leg. It was broken. Her situation made my heart sick.  I almost despaired. Our veterinarian was due to come to the farm on another errand so, we considered putting her to sleep.

To see one of Baby’s haunts check out this card. http://grabauheritage.com/store/products/calf-shed/

For a lighter view on cats, visit http://www.jhphotograph.com/blog1/puppy-love-farm-cats-and-dogs

photo credit: liakapelke via photopin cc