One day in October I was beginning a morning of phone consultations, when Nikita (the orange cat), walked in and went to bed on the office sofa. I was on the phone, but glanced over at him just to say hi. He matter-of-factly said, “I have been hit by a car”. I was stunned, he looked perfectly healthy!
After the consultation I went to examine him. One claw on each back foot had been broken off completely. The stumps were bloody and terribly painful. Still I thought maybe I was imagining the message about the car. I called his vet and she said it made sense that those injuries could be from getting hit by a car. She treated him with a homeopathic remedy and he began to feel better instantly.
I found it hard to believe; we live on a very quite cul-de-sac and wouldn’t he have more injuries? I checked his head and found some road rash with bits of gravel, so I concluded that he had indeed had some incident on the road.I suspected a particular teenager that likes to cruise our street (because Nikita said it happened late at night.) I asked another communicator for a description of the car, and she described the same color vehicle and loud music. However, I know this teenager drives slowly and seemingly careful. I gave Nikita a lecture about staying out of the street and away from cars.
When I first got Nikita as a kitten I began with a goal of having him as an indoor cat, but he becomes destructive and violent if kept in. He says he would rather live 2 years outdoors than 15 years indoors. Communicating with our animals sometimes means compromising or even giving in to their ideas. Nikita reminds me frequently that he does not have a “boss”, “I am an equal peer”, he says, “I am an adult”.
I am grateful that my “adult” Nikita survived the car incident with minor injuries. Today he is well; one of the claws is still raw but slowly growing back.