[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze]
The kitty’s problem now is that he desperately wants to go outside. Apparently he alone has been protecting the property from marauding hordes of encroaching cats and he takes this very seriously. This afternoon he escaped while my son was outside playing in the snow. According to the kid, “he went to the bathroom a lot”–only after a thorough casing of the yard could we get him to come back inside, and he wanted right back out. Apparently he had left some territory unmarked. But he did not get back out.
Our other cat, by contrast, never goes outside, and also never, ever has emergency trips to the vet.
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It’s pretty common for a cat who normally goes outside to be really insistant on it. Especially if there is another kitty who normally keeps to the inside and whose territory is now being imposed on full time. Ignore his pleas. He can’t go out so long as that abcess is going. If he decides he doesn’t want to come home for a day or two, that abcess could get worse. Maggots, for example.
I know there’s snow on the ground. Still wouldn’t surprise me if he got maggots.