our kitty, buddy (if you knew him, you’d understand how fitting that name really is) was missing for 6 days. i started to panic thinking the worst had happened. we got to the make-signs-and-call-everyone-we-know-phase of things. low and behold, through facebook (gotta love facebook sometimes) our neighbor mentioned seeing him. i went outside on friday afternoon and he was laying on our front lawn. i was worried because he wasn’t moving or responding to my voice. my heart sank. i sat on the grass next to him and touched his back. he flinched and tried to nip at my hand. i was overjoyed. but as this happened, i realized his face was very very swollen. something was very wrong. i picked him up and took him into the house and closed him off in the bathroom. i didn’t want the girls to be scared of how he looked – it was not good. the short story is that i ended up having to take him to the pet hospital and they kept him over night. he was dehydrated and they needed to drain the massive amounts of fluid in his mouth. poor kitty. i picked him up this morning and he looked like this:

the cone of shame. you’ve seen “up” right?
they still aren’t 100% sure what happened. it could be that got bit by something. it could be that he got in a fight. he’s 13, so this could be a sign of age and something more serious. time will tell. if the infection stays away, then we know it was a bite or something. keeping my fingers crossed.
and now, 6 days later (the length of time he was missing) he looks like this:

lookin’ good buddy. we are so glad you are home!