Hana and the Habu

Thursday night I finally found Hana, our kitty. She had missing for 3 days and I was beginning to get extremely worried. I had spent hours each day calling for her from our balcony, seaching in the banana tree field and walking along the street below our house that borders on the sugarcane fields. Normally, she will meow from her hiding place or come out to me if I call long enough. She is scared to death of our German shepherd Sophie, but enough calling usully entices her to at least meow so I can find her, scoop her up, and carry her home! This time though, nothing. I had "spoken" with the lady at the barber shop along the road and she knew I was looking for "Hana-chan." I use spoken loosely since she speaks almost no English and I speak less Japanese. But through the few works I know, "neko = cat" and "Hana-chan" and much pointing, she conveyed to me that she had seen Hana walking around aong the road and going into the sugar-cane fields. I was even pretty sure she was telling me she had seen Hana on the steps beside the banana field earlier that same day. I started looking under the bushes by the steps and with some divine intervention, I found her!!!

I noticed that she was fighting me as I picked her up and meowing in a not so very nice way but she looked well enough. I carried her home and deposited her in the top bunk of Alycia's bed until I could check her over and came back downstairs. A few minutes later Alycia was yelling from the top of the stairs that Hana had scratched her and a huge piece of Hana's fur had fell off. What???

I went upstairs and saw that he did have a very big wound of some sort, about 2 inches in diameter. Strangely enough it was black, alhtough it seemed to be red at the edges. She was not acting very well at all either. I tried to call the vet but they were already closed for the evening. I checked on her periodically through the night and first thing the next morning we took her to the Japanese vet.

As he looked her over he parted the hair around the wound and a black line of skin up her back apppeared with the hair flaking off of it. I was shocked as he told me she had been bitten by a habu, the most poisonous and deadly snake in Okinawa. Her skin was dying and that was why it was turning black as the venom left a trail. He gave her some antibiotics and fluids as she was extrememely dehydrated too. We brought her home and are watching her closely and praing that she makes it through this trama. So far she doesn't seem to be doing any better or worse. She goes back to the vet again on Sunday afternoon. If you read this, we would appreciate any prayers for our sweet kitten.