Hi everyone, it’s Allegra! I want to tell you about something that happened last week. I’m not proud to say that it probably took a few years off of Mom’s life…
So, you already know that I’m obsessed with chewing on anything plastic. Crinkly plastic seals? Love them! Plastic baggies? Let me at ’em! Mom’s EVA Birkenstocks? Yup, they now have a lovely stencil pattern.
But last week, I found the most amazing plastic thing yet. It was on the hallway floor, just waiting for me to play with it. It was a very thin strip, maybe ten inches long. I batted at it for a while, and then I chewed on it. Oh, heavens, was that fun! All of a sudden, Mom comes yelling down the hallway, screaming my name, which apparently now was “Allegrano!” I don’t really understand what was wrong with me having such a good time, so I’ll let her finish the story.
Ingrid here: I saw an inch long piece of whatever she had found dangling from her mouth. Luckily, I was able to grab her and force her mouth open – and I was just in time. The rest of the strip was all curled up in her mouth, and I’m pretty sure she was getting ready to swallow it. Thankfully, I was able to pull out the entire piece.
Please note that if something like this ever happens to your cat, never pull at a string if the cat has already partially ingested it. You risk damage to the esophagus, or your cat may choke. This requires an immediate trip to the veterinarian or emergency clinic.
Back to our story: I had been working with contact paper in the laundry room earlier that day, behind a closed door. Allegra is not allowed in the laundry room. It’s unfinished, and there are too many nooks and crannies for her to get in trouble. I thought I was super careful cleaning up after myself, but a piece of contact paper must have gotten stuck to the bottom of my foot or shoe, and since it was white, the same color as background of the hallway rug, I didn’t see it – until Allegra found it.
Allegra again: Mom is such a spoilsport! She pulled that strip out of my mouth before I could have more fun with it! And then she did something weird: she sat down on the floor, right there in the hallway, and hugged me really really tight, and she was shaking, and then she started to cry. I felt really awful, I didn’t want to make her cry!
She explained to me that this could have ended really badly if I had swallowed that piece. It could have wrapped itself around my intestines, and they might have had to cut me open to get it out! Once she told me that, I understood why she was so upset. I wish I could say I’ll never do it again, but I just can’t resist the temptation of plastic. But I’m pretty sure Mom is going to be even more careful now.
Kitties, did you ever eat something you shouldn’t have?
Our 8 year old long hair tortie, Freyja, that is 15 pounds and resembles a Norwegian Forest Cat has huge fascination with plastic.
She also likes elastic bands and laces.
She is very smart and will jump up one places she shouldn’t be and carefully scans for objects that suit her taste, then she grabs them in her mouth and runs with it, and she is fast.
Fortunately, she doesn’t have a history of swallowing things but I keep on top of it and don’t give her the opportunity. It’s not easy trying to think ahead to prevent access, though.
Allegra you just aged your mommy at least 10 years! What a scare. I am so glad that your guardian angel was there.
Dusty likes to sit on the desk and hook rubber bands out of an open drawer – so Mom has learned to close the drawer RIGHT AWAY ! Glad everything turned out well at your house !
Miss Stripes has a thing about eating threads. She started eating some from a long reel of cotton when I caught her. I was able to catch her early enough and get what little she tried to swallow out. So…I have to make sure that my reels of cotton are always put away which is difficult because I have to constantly unthread my sewing machine.
Thank …. what a terrible scare you gave your Mom! At your age, you should know better. I am so glad your Mom stayed calm until she got the strip from your mouth. I would be doing the same thing your Mom did, crying and hugging you so tight. Be be more careful, Allegra.
So glad Allegra is okay and you found her in time before something worse happened. My cat Zeke loves chewing plastic as well. We have to hide every single plastic thing (bags, tape, etc.) My other cat, Cooper, loves chewing on things like drawstrings, wires, shoelaces. He did swallow a partial shoestring once, but luckily threw it up. Luckily my third cat, Oz, hasn’t chew things (yet).
Oh, Allegrano! What a name. You and Miss Kiki both love plastic and I am always catching her with something she shouldn’t have. But going back to Allegrano, when I first got Pono, he got in so much trouble and my husband and I would always holler “no”. Well, Pono has “no” in the name and when we started calling Pono, he seemed to catch the “no” part and think he was in trouble even when he wasn’t. We had to start saying “stop” to get him to stop doing something bad.
That’s too funny, Janine!