Catnip or Stiff Upper Lip

Monday evening came like a godsend. If I don’t get some downtime at some point in the week I’m likely to become unlikable. I get twitchy and short-tempered, tired and basically unsociable. And, I’m prone to fantasies of reclusiveness, surrounded by books, chocolate and DVDs. Mmmmm.

And so, I “cooked” dinner, a stop-start approach to a baked potato due to a missing microwave cookery book. (I fear that I accidentally threw it out with newspapers. Argh.) With cold tuna-mayo and ready-made cous cous salad from Checkers. I ate while watching “my soaps” which should be translated as “my defragging time” and enjoyed being at home at a reasonable hour. In fact, enjoyed being at home, full stop.


Oscar was being particularly cute – he has flashes of Mr. Cat mixed with crazy kitten. Yes, I have become one of those people that insist on imparting, in minutia, everything their “child” has done. I scare myself… but you should SEE him! So I decided to indulge him in his favourite game – sometimes-fetch the green ball.

He tears after the green ball, arms flailing, ears down, and so we go, swapping positions like cricketers. Sometimes, for my own amusement, I find the blue ball and throw them together. The results are hilarious! At some point he looked tired or bored, maybe I wasn’t doing it right, so I picked him up and started dancing around the lounge - bouncing and rocking my cat, who saw it as a fantastic opportunity to dig his teeth into my hands and claws into my arms.

It’s all fun and games until somebody loses a lip.

Kittens don’t always seem to be in control of their head movement. So their little heads loll from side-to-side, making them look slightly spastic! I love it, especially when there’s nothing on TV. I was holding him above my head, looking up at him, and as I brought him closer for a kiss (something you would think I would have learned NOT to do after countless scratches on my nose) his head bolted down. The end result was a little but chef’s knife sharp fang plunging into my top lip.

Ack. I was shocked, put him down and bounded over to the mirror to assess the damage. It was small but deep. I gingerly pulled out my top lip to check the inside, afraid that his tooth has gone all the way through. I was slightly disappointed that it hadn’t. But amazed at how profusely it bled. And then did what all 30-something, single girls do… jumped on the phone and called my mom. She would know if I needed a Tetanus shot. She said what most mothers would in that kind of situation, call your doctor. So, holding a tissue to my lip, I attempted a clear conversation with my GP, who said to come in the next morning and to wash it out with antiseptic stuff in the mean time.

I could hardly blame my little lion, who didn’t really know what was going on, and was patiently waiting to resume the Green Ball game. But the mood was gone. And my Monday night had lost its calm indulgence. All that was left to do was flop on to my couch, chocolate in hand and make sure that I didn’t get any of the Germaline that was covering my top lip on anything edible or unwashable. And I realized, just as my kitty needs to learn - I too need to learn... because, the first two times it was my nose, now my lip... next time it could be my eye. Even though he's the apple of it!