Above: Gaze into the eyes of innocence. Gentle Fluffy is home again.
I hadn't brought him home immediately since I had a lot of organization and cleaning to do, and I was concerned about interference while I was getting used to the IV routines. I was a little nervous yesterday... Fluffy can be a gentle creature, but he likes to roughhouse, and I was a little worried that our fun games of chase-the-wand would lead Fluffy to think that the various IV lines dripping off me were fair game for chewing. Worse, one of Page's cats found a spot on my shirt where a droplet of TPN fluid had falled, and had licked at it incessantly until I forced him away. If Fluffy knew that I was carrying around a bag of tasty sugar water, full of fat and protein, he might try to attack the bag!
We had a few rough patches where Fluffy's animal instincts got the better of him, and he would gnaw and slobber on my IV lines until pushed aside. On one occasion, his exuberance at being home nearly had tragic consequences. A typical evening at home involves Fluffy dragging one or more of his toys to my feet in an invitation to play. This is fine, of course, but Fluffy dragged over one of his wands, which is a stick attached to a length of string with a toy at the end. Fluffy managed to gallop around my feet and under my chair, wrapping the wand's string around my feet and the IV lines. He leapt with joy under my desk and to the window, and I nearly fell completely out of my chair yelling as my PICC line was pulled to the floor. It took about five minutes to untangle the crossed lines, and then I still had to play with the cat, who was doubly-excited now that he was trying to help me untangle the lines (by batting at them, of course.)
After an hour of testing on Fluffy's part and reprimands on mine, I think we reached a compromise: Fluffy was content if allowed to simply sit on the IV tubes. I suppose that was tantamount to 'capturing' the prey without actually destroying it. This arrangement has proved mutually beneficial as I can position Fluffy to pin the line down in specific places, thus preventing the line from lying in the path of my rolling chair (which can snag the line and crimp it.)
I'd had a busy weekend, so I decided to take it easy and retire early. I had to move the TPN backpack onto the bed with me and hide the cables under the sheet, but part of the line would be exposed so long as my arms were above the sheets. I was exhausted, and decided to wake up only long enough to set up the antibiotic IV infusion, and then return to sleep instead of waiting for it to complete. This meant that I would have an IV line running from a stand down to my arm all night, and a bag of refuse next to the bed where I would drop wrappers, spent saline syringes, etc. If there's an annoying activity Fluffy loves more than chewing on things and people, it's rooting through boxes and bags.
I was a little nervous after setting up the midnight IV. What if Fluffy pulled the whole stand down, shattering vials and spilling antibiotics everywhere? What if he chewed through a tube and infused himself with a megadose of Ampicillin? What if he nibbled through my TPN feed line and put himself into a sugar coma? All of these worries nagged at me, but I was too tired to do much. I fell asleep...
I awoke at 6 AM. I was amazed - all of the IV lines were undisturbed. Fluffy hadn't attacked the sack of refuse next to the bed. Instead, he was happily curled up atop the blue bag, back to my side. I don't know how he managed to resist so many temptations, but he was perfectly behaved. He even limited his usual nighttime prowling, seemingly so as not to disturb me any more than necessary. In fact, I realized that his perch atop the TPN backpack had an advantage for me: he was keeping my food warm.
As I type this, we are both still in bed. I am not getting up until my noon IV infusion - I can work on my computer in bed just as well as I can work at a desk - and neither is he. I have to wonder how he knew not to bother certain objects - I suppose he is a more resourceful and considerate cat than I'd thought. Welcome home, kitty!
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