Our Emergency Comes To An End

There’s no other way to say this – CG finally passed the ribbon.

You may remember we had a bit of an emergency last week. CG got hold of a present’s bow that was made out of curling ribbon and swallowed a piece of unknown length.

After visiting the ER, we were told to wait: He would either pass it in two days, or he would stop eating and look sickly.

So we waited. And waited.

Monday passed. Tuesday passed. Wednesday passed.

Every time CG used the litter box, I ran to it and went through his business. Since I didn’t know how long the ribbon was, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it.

By mid-week,  Matt and I started to wonder if we were crazy. CG, meanwhile, was acting completely normal, if not more full of life. We *saw* him eat the ribbon. But we started to second-guess ourselves. Could he have spit it out? This ribbon should be wreaking havoc inside of him, but instead CG was acting as if everything was fine – better than fine.

Thursday passed.

At that point, Matt and I decided that I would check in with our vet on Friday to see what our options were. I wanted to find out if an x-ray would reveal anything, although I wasn’t sure if it would be able to pick up on the ribbon. I just wanted to find out if it was still in him and where.

Friday afternoon, our vet called us and recommended a two-step process. First, she said, we would give him a laxative to move things along. Then, by Monday or so, if the laxative hadn’t helped, she said we could have x-rays done. But, since the ribbon would not show up in an x-ray, they’d have to give him a certain substance that would highlight any foreign objects in his stomach, and x-ray him multiple times throughout the day as the substance worked through him.

Neither option sounded like a great idea, but as a pet parent, sometimes you just need to do what’s best for your cat.

And then it happened Friday around 5 p.m. CG used the litter box.

I went to it for the umpteenth time, ready for my umpteenth disappointment.

But there it was – tangled up with his hair in one of his, um, nuggets. I started to cry. I absolutely couldn’t believe it passed without a problem – and 120 or so hours after the fact.

Since then, thankfully, CG has continued to be just fine.

A number of you were tremendously kind and offered words of hope and prayers, and asked about CG all week. Thank you so much for everything, it really meant a great deal to us!

Oh, and yes, I did measure it (the one question all of my immediate family members asked me respectively). The ribbon was 12 inches long. Sheesh.