Guilt, guilt, guilt.

Cat Capers has taken a dark turn.

As you read in "Swimming Cat update", I'm swimming and the cat was doing quite well with the new indoor-outdoor routine.

I was feeling a little smug.

My house didn't stink. The cat was calm. My bite wounds healed with only moderate scarring. All was good.

Tuesday about 3 a.m., Paco meowed to go out. I let him out and stumbled back to bed.

At 3:30 a.m., I heard barking, screeching and yowling, and I KNOW that yowl (many nights of pre-outdoor cat-begging to go out noise).

I shot out of bed and ran out front. Two dogs were attacking Paco, who lay unconscious on the grass while one dog dragged him away by the leg.

I yelled, the dogs scattered, and I scooped up Paco and brought him inside.

Paco regained his senses after a few minutes, but was having trouble swallowing and walking.

In the morning, we took him to the vet, where he stayed the night after his wounds were treated:




Wow. Poor Paco.

Tuesday evening, a neighbor from down the street came over with flyers.

Apparently a gang of three dogs has been terrorizing the neighborhood cats (large feral colony and many pets, out like Paco for a nightly roam). SIX cats had been killed. They had caught the dogs on video during one of the attacks.

Since only 15 minutes before, I visited the neighbors' house and accused THEIR dog of the attack, I was conflicted about this news. GREAT. There goes the neighbor-of-the-year award.

It's time for me to MOVE OUT of MIAMI (or be run out).

Paco is recovering nicely, thanks for asking. He moves slowly, but did sit on the porch (screened and locked) for about an hour this morning, eating and drinking well.

I guess I'm keeping him in from now on - what I will do when he returns to health and his bad behaviors, I do not know, because I feel guilty enough to take quite a bit of aggravation for a while.