Well, we stood our ground for 48 hours, which isn’t bad, all things considered. But last night we surrendered and took the bothersome Elizabethan collar off. Why? Because Priscilla had turned into a terrified tiny larva. She was so frightened of bumping into things that she refused to get off our bed, which meant that we had to carry her downstairs for meals and even to use the cat litter…by the way, she peed all over our feather duvet on Saturday. Lovely.

Carrying a kitty around sounds simple enough. But Priscilla is part tiger. Whenever we picked her up, she would growl and hiss, then hold on to our necks for dear life with her sharp little claws embedded in our flesh (OUCH!).

Then, yesterday afternoon, Stefano tried to pick her up to take the feline larva downstairs for a bite to eat, and she scratched his neck. Fiercely. Drew blood. A scene out of Rudi’s “how to give a pill” comment. I wonder if any of Stefano’s colleagues at work will make a smart aleck remark about those scratches today. Eh.

So yesterday evening we carefully checked out the spot on her tummy, and it looked okay. Concerned that we wouldn’t be able to pick up the ferocious beast anymore and that, as a result, she would starve to death, die of thirst AND pee all over our duvet (I am joking here, naturellement, we would never let that happen!), we decided to unhook her.

Funny thing is, even after being released from the torture device, she wouldn’t budge from our bed. We called and cooed to her, but she didn’t come down for dinner with the others. So I took a bowl of food upstairs and showed it to her at a distance (she was starving by then). Step by step, going backwards, I managed to coax her slowly downstairs. Once she realized that she wasn’t ramming into the furniture and walls anymore, she was fine.

She slept by my feet or perched precariously on my shoulder (…) all night and then, just before dawn, thrust her purring face into mine, demanding attention. Life seems to be back to normal…so I hope! I have to say that we have noticed her licking that pink hairless spot on her tummy (now that she can reach it…). Of course, we discourage that. But we aren’t with her all the time, of course…oh well.

At any rate, one thing is for sure: no more e-collar. Ever.

P.S. Our cats are housecats. So Priscilla’s alopecia was not caused by parasites or fleas. Just to make sure, though, our vet checked her over carefully on Friday…found nothing.