Salamander
Fire Walking

Today marks the half-year anniversary of Satan’s Little Fart Cloud’s quarantine. Her coat is growing in beautifully, and once again I am allowing myself to dream that we can start doing cultures to see if the ringworm has cleared. The veterinary dermatologist we're using said if she's still good Monday, we can start. This is as close as we've come so far.

Anyone who is reading this for tips on how to care for a ringworm cat: Read this next bit closely.

Do as I say, not as I do.

You have that? Do not do what I’m now doing and then come whining to me because all your other cats have caught the ringworm fungus.

I couldn’t stand leaving SLFC in quarantine any more. It’s the holidays and the trees are up, and she loves to hide under the trees. SLFC should be snoozing out in front of the portable heater in by the television instead of in a bathroom surrounded by cold tiles and reject towels. She should be interacting with the other cats instead of terrorizing the toilet paper roll.

I found a cat sweater on sale on Monday. I bought it because SLFC’s coat, while growing in, is still thin; now that the temperature is dropping into the twenties regularly I wasn’t sure she was warm enough since the bathroom I've quarantined her in tends to get drafty. When I put the sweater on her though, it occurred to me that it did a nice job of keeping the majority of her body covered, thus minimizing shedding. I decided to delude myself and believe that even if SLFC has still got some surface spores on her hair, the sweater should minimized cross-contamination between her and our other cats. Thusly fortified with a weak justification, I’m now letting SLFC out of the quarantine rooms under supervision.

Allow me to repeat my above warning.

Anyone who is reading this for tips on how to care for a ringworm cat: Do as I say, not as I do.

I’m taking a real risk of spreading the ringworm if it’s still there, but I can’t stand it anymore. She’s nine-and-a-half years old, and has now spent five percent of her life locked in a bathroom. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much, but if you’re forty, that would be two years of your life. Pro-rate up or down for your actual age.

So far she hasn’t gone too far when I’ve let her out, and usually settles close to me. The other cats are curious, and fortunately there have been no problems re-introducing her to the clan. I will keep her separate from the Warrior Princess; the prospect of treating WP for ringworm sends shivers down my spine. Being reintroduced to the rest of the house, even on a limited basis, has made SLFC more difficult to put back into quarantine. She now remembers what she’s missing, and is making concerted efforts to escape imprisonment when I open the door to her jail cell.

An added plus to this is that SLFC is damned cute in a sweater. She reminds me of nothing so much as an Edward Gorey Cat come to life.

Cover of Edward Gorey’s book “CateGorey”

SLFC as Edward Gorey Cat