* * *

Mr. Klouie was more scared than hurt as Dr. Arnoldi examined him. "It's either a dislocated hip or a broken femoral neck," said the doctor. "We'll have to x-ray to see for sure."

At first we thought that Kahlua (a.k.a. Mr. Klouie, Louie, Louis, and Lou), our five year old Persian, had gotten into a fight with another cat. A couple of weeks ago, When he came in at about three-o'clock in the morning after being out most of the night, I didn't even notice that anything was wrong. I was just glad that he finally came home so I could go to bed. The next day Julie noticed that his face was pretty messed up.

Poor Lou. His lower lip was badly torn and he had lost a considerable amount of hair from his chin. We began to suspect that he may have been hit by a car when Julie observed him limping -- More like hobbling on three legs, holding the fourth (the left rear) entirely off the floor as he made his way across the room.

I examined him but could find no sign of anything broken or out of place. We decided to see if he would get any better on his own before taking him to the veterinarian, and over the course of about a week he did indeed seem to be improving.

Unfortunately though, each time that Mr. Klouie started to feel better and become more active, he seemed to re-injure himself and revert to carrying his lame leg again.

All of this time, Lou was remarkably stoic. He never complained about his injuries -- if he would have, I would have taken him to the vet sooner. I think that maybe he knew that.

"if it's a dislocated hip, we should be able to put it back in place," said the doctor, "but if it's a broken femoral neck..." He paused a bit and continued "well, that's kind of a bummer."

So off we went to the x-ray room. Ruler in hand, the doc said "we'll have to measure your butt -- I'm talking to the cat," he grinned, lightening the mood as he set up the equipment. Julie comforted Klouie until they were ready to take the pictures, and then we had to leave the room while they zapped him.

Julie sat holding Mr. Klouie as we waited for the x-rays to be processed. Lou just wanted to get out of there. Burying his head under Julie's arm, he tried to hide from the other pets and their owners who came and went or waited with us in the reception area.

Back in the examining room, the doctor pointed to the backlighted film and informed us that Lou did in fact have a dislocated hip. He then explained to us what he could do about it.

Since Lou would have to be under a general anesthetic, and the procedure could take some time, it was decided that we should wait until the following morning and the doctor suggested that we leave Mr. Klouie there overnight.

"What's this?" asked Dr. Arnoldi, lifting Julie's chin to look at her face. "She's got tears in her eyes," he told me. I then asked if we could take him home for the night and bring him back in the morning, and Louis meowed as if to say "pleeeeeas?" so that's just what we did.

Well, the procedure went as well as could be expected, and with his seven-centimeter butt in a sling Lou is home and convalescing as comfortably as possible with one leg tied up so that his foot is up by his groin.

He's got a week left before he gets to go back to the animal hospital to have the bandages removed. I'm surprised that he hasn't chewed them off already. He seems to know that it is for his own good though, and insouciantly hops along on three legs, taking it all in stride.

Only time will tell now if he will recover fully. He has been very brave through all of this and although I hope he regains full use of his leg, a slight limp may just keep him a little closer to home.

More importantly: I hope that he has learned his lesson. We live on a busy urban street and if that lesson is not learned, a cat can go through it's allotment of nine lives in no time at all.

In the words of Dr. Arnoldi, of the Wausau Animal Hospital: "Jackson street? You can turn into a flat-cat real quick there!"