Relaxing with some ice packs because our apartment is so hot.
Saturday morning, I woke up to the sound of Smudge, my girl cat, crying beside my ear for about 20 minutes. I assumed she was just hungry, so I got up to feed them, only to find that my little Mr.Jinx was missing. I searched the apartment top to bottom, tore everything apart, and finally went to wake Josh up (he is working night shift and got home around 7am) for some help. Together we tore apart the whole apartment again. Nothing. I took a bag of treats, and shook it all over the apartment and on the roof as they can basically get into anyone else's apartment very easily just climbing on the walls connecting the four rooftop apartments. After about 30 minutes of searching, I knew something was up. Josh headed down to talk to the doorman to see if anyone had mentioned seeing a cat, and I went down to the basement to look and see if he was down there.
There were only two options for what could have happened. Either he got out of our apartment and had taken the stairs down to another floor, or he had fallen from a window down 7 stories. Either way, he had to be somewhere in the building, as the apartment has 10 foot walls all the way around. So, I went to see my friend Sandra down the street at Smudge's vet to get her to help make some posters to put up in the apartment, as we thought he must be in someone else's apartment.
We did that and then weren't sure what to do, we searched through all the floors again, knocked on some doors and nothing. At about 2pm, Josh went to talk to the doorman again and he said a guy just came in and said in the morning at 8:30 he drove out and a cat ran out of the building behind him. He described Jinx to a T and even though he knew it was a housecat, he never bothered to stop and tell the doorman at 830 instead of 2 when he got home. SO ANGERING! At that point, panic set in. The streets here are always filled with crazy drivers and there are millions of hiding places. Most of the parking garages, and buildings just have iron bars, big enough for a cat to get through and into any building. There are also gardens and holes everywhere. So the hunt was on. By the time I got back down to the vet again, Sandy was already printing off posters to put up. I also called Jinx's vet about 8 blocks away and they were on alert. I went up to Parque Kennedy, which is the park with about 120 cats. I thought with him being a boy, maybe he went looking for girls. While I was there, Jannet from Jinx's vet called and was at our apartment. She shut down the vet and brought another vet and an assistant, armed with about 50 posters to search. Jinx and Smudge have both stayed there about a total of a month since we have been here, so they are like family there as well. Jinx also has kidney failure and HAS to have his medicine everyday or he could die. So they were very concerned as well. We spent the next 2 hours knocking on doors, and putting up posters. Then Carlos, the vet assistant noticed that there is a street camera on the corner, about half a block from our apartment. His mom works for the mayor, so he called his mom and got her to get the mayor to give approval for us to go to the police station and review the camera footage from the day. We watched about 1 hours worth, but nothing. There is a huge mulberry tree that blocked out a lot of the view, as well as the camera circled in a 360 view, so you could only see our building about 10 seconds of every 30. So we headed back and went looking again. We all assumed he wouldn't have went far, especially if he was hurt. We searched until about 8pm and Josh called in sick so he could help look and make sure I didn't have a breakdown as well.
At 8:00, I sent everyone home and headed up to the apartment myself while Josh was out looking. I needed some water and to cry by myself for a few minutes. As I was getting ready to leave I got a phone call. It was in very fast spanish, but I knew they said that they found him, but I couldn't understand where. So I ran across the hall to an apartment where I know the teenaged girl speaks very good english and asked her to translate. She told me that they were right across the street at the government office that I can see directly into from our apartment. So I took off on a mad sprint, with Josh on the phone and the doorman in tow to help if I needed. Josh was just getting to our door as I was walking out so we ran over and the security guards took us inside. Because the posters said Jinx is sick and needs medicine, they would not touch him. They found him hiding under a tarp, that I could see from our balcony all day.
The view from our balcony. He was hiding under the blue tarp in the top left corner.
I had to stay out of the room because I was freaking out that his back was broken, as he could not really walk and I knew if I heard his howling I would lose it. Jannet confirmed that there was likely a fracture in his hip, but everything else seemed fine. We decided he had to have fell the 7 stories from the apartment. Since it had been about 12 hours since it happened, he was not showing any signs of internal injuries, but we had to wait about 48 hours to X-ray in case. We took him home, after a strong shot of painkiller and prayed for the best.
We decided that what must have happened in when I came in the night before, the door wasn't latched and blew open. This happens to me quite often because I don't like to slam the door and because of that it doesn't quite latch. Then once he was out the door blew shut and he was trapped in the common area of our floor which has a low railing but is mostly open to the outside (it is never rainy or windy in Lima so most buildings are like this). He must have climbed onto the railing and slipped, or tried to jump for one of our window sills to get back in.
Where he fell from, straight down on to the planter on the right side of the grass. Then hopped down onto the driveway and followed a car out.
I sat staring at Jinx all night, and couldn't sleep. In the morning, I got dressed and went to take down some of the hundreds of lost cat posters. The doorman stopped me, and took me over to a small area by the elevator. There is a concrete planter with some bushes and grass all around it. Around and in the planter, was a bunch of Jinx's fur and some branches had broken off. This was obviously where he had fallen and landed. It looked like he landed right on the edge of the concrete planter and that is likely what broke his leg.
Where he landed. you can see his fur in the bushes and on the ground around it.
I was very worried all day Sunday. He did pee in the morning which was a good sign, but wouldn't eat or drink. I gave him his normal fluid under his skin for his kidney failure, so this kept him hydrated at least. Jannet came over and gave him another pain shot around 12 so he was out again all day. Josh tok me for a nice lunch to my favorite sushi place, Edo to take my mind off it. So delicious. Best sushi I have had anywhere. We got home and he went to work, and I had a nap.
At about 3:45 AM Jinx tried crawling the 6 inches to the litter box. A good sign. At about 8 I tried to feed him and he had about two big dishes of food and water. I was so happy! Jannet came to pick him and I up at 11 to take us for xrays. Turns out his hip is broken, but no damage that needs surgery so we were very happy! It will be a long recovery, but he should be ready to go once we are done the job in about 5-6 weeks.
you can see the left side of his pelvis is pushed up but the head of the femur is intact which is what they were concerned about.
how cute does his little stump tail look?
It was an awful weekend, but I am so happy to have my baby back safe and sound. He used up another life, but is the toughest cat I have ever met! We will be doing lots of cuddling and getting lots of love for the next few weeks!
I'm so sorry for you! I hope he heals quickly and completely!
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