Remember my free kitty, Alice? We picked her up, recently spayed and brought her home on the day my truck had brake issues. (Or was it tire... I think that it was brake, but tire sounds LESS scary.)

Anyway, she is turning out to be a great kitty. She loves to play and be petted. She does scratch my old, itchy, hand-me-down, lazyboy, but it was already torn up from my old cat, Sheba. It can not get any uglier so I do not care.

A few days ago she was rolling around on the bed showing me her tummy. I patted her belly and noticed that the spot where the surgery was had grown hard and, well grown. It was bulging out a bit. But I am not an alarmist. Well, I am, but I can calm myself quickly. I learned from my mother that rushing to the doctor at the first sign of trouble is silly. I chose to hold off. If it didn't look better by Monday I decided I would take her in.

This morning, I was in the shower and had Gwennie filling the cats' food dish. When I got out, Gwennie was petting Alice's tail while she ate. Then Alice ran off to her spot. Gwennie chased her saying, "Alice eat more." She grabbed her and put her, not very gently, back on the counter where the food is. I noticed pus. I yelled at Gwennie to stop pulling on Alice.

Every so gently, I picked Alice up, and turned her over. The huge swelling was gone, but was replaced by redness and oozing pus. Crap. Holy Crap.

I had the girls get dressed and we loaded Alice into the cat carrier. I knew it was an infection of some sort. But was it life-threatening? Had we finally replaced one cat with another sick little kitty? She doesn't act sick, she eats well, and drinks and all of that. She plays, and purrs. She seems like a healthy cat, other than the growth on her tummy.

Have I ever mentioned that I love our vet? He doesn't do appointments. Walk-in only. He is usually quick, and not too expensive. The vet's office even sent us a condolence card after Beckham was put down. Well, anyway, today was another exemplary visit. He looked at her, listened to what I had to say, and told me it was an abscess. He and his assistant took Alice into the back room, cleaned the abscess out and filled it with antibiotics. Then brought her back. She is on flucloxacillin for ten days. I have to clean the wound twice a day with hydrogen peroxide and squeeze it. (Yuck.) But she should be perfectly fine, as long as the abscess does not bother the abdominal sutures.

Rhayn was terrified. We were in the same room that they put us in when we put Becky-boo-boo down. The girls both looked like they were going to cry. We are pretty sure our little Alice will be with us a long time yet. But she is no longer our free kitty, she cost me $77 today.