Pan was pretty content when I woke last Sunday morning (below left) — but I noticed he had a lump under his jaw — and there was a dead bat on the bedroom floor when I came home late Saturday night.

Yeah, a bat.  I suppose they caught it on the roof — they have a pet door upstairs so they can access the balcony and roof.  At least both he and Hera are current on their rabies shots.

So, the result of taking him to the vet is that they anesthetized him, took care of some overdue teeth cleaning, gave him a rabies update and installed a drain in the abscess that had to remain in place for the week.

That first night was a long one.  He was drugged out for the evening but then he started getting restless and wouldn’t tolerate the elizabethan collar — he kept pulling himself out of it.  He also seemed to hallucinate things now and again.  I didn’t get much sleep that night baby-sitting him.

Sometime early the next morning I finally remembered the cat body harness I had and was able to attach the elizabethan collar to it so he couldn’t remove it any more.

Not a happy or comfortable cat for the rest of the week until the drain and collar could finally be removed.  But he’s good and happy again now and healing fine.

I half-woke this morning to the noise of a crash.  Or perhaps I dreamt it?  I listened for more but there was nothing.  Had I heard anything?  Pan was in the room.  Hera wasn’t.  Maybe knocked something over.  Perhaps I’ll find out later?  Back to snooze.

Much later, and after browsing the web and answering some email, I finally get up and make my way downstairs with Pan running ahead of me expectantly.  First thing he wants everyday is to go outside.  I go to open the porch door and… a very perturbed Hera comes rushing up to the door from outside and gives me an earful.

And I’m thinking… what the heck??  How did you get out?  How long have you… hey… I don’t suppose that noise…

And then I have a hunch.  So I go upstairs and take a look at my solar panels and sure enough, there’s the evidence. Kinda funny to see, actually:

You see, I have a pet door in an upstairs window that let’s Pan and Hera get out to a patio off of my bedroom.  And I’ve got several planters out there with grasses, herbs, catnip and nepeta — all kitty goodies.  They do have to brave the various hawks and birds of prey, but they’re pretty good size cats and it seems worth the risk to let them enjoy free access.

So it would seem that Hera decided to try walking on one of the panels this morning and slipped or perhaps was even startled by the shadow of a hawk overhead.  (In fact, one such shadow passed over while I was up there to take a picture.)  She then must have scrambled to hang on, crashed into the metal gutter (the noise I heard) and yet still tumbled off the side and down to the ground.  A pretty good fall for a big fifteen pound cat particularly since the ground is much lower on that side of the house.  Well, Hera was a little annoyed for not being able to get back in the house all morning but no apparent injuries.

Next day thoughts: It is odd how there are simple paw prints at the top of the panel, scrambling smears at the bottom and nothing in between.  Did something try to pick her up?  Maybe, but she didn’t have any qualms about going out again later that night and she doesn’t seem to have any wounds from talons.  A mystery remains.