Can't catch a break, or two

Willis had a rough start to the day.  I don't know what happened exactly, but I heard a splash and thought nothing of it at the time.  There were several families loading up on a couple of rental boats for the day, and I thought one of them dropped something off the dock.  About 20 minutes later, I thought I heard Willis meowing.

You must understand that Willis is a very quiet cat.  He almost never meows.  In fact, I have only heard him meow if he is about to get seasick or if he is hurt. This sounded like he was crying.  He was clearly stressed.  I was running up and down the dock, around the pointe, and looking in the mangroves trying to figure out where he was at. 

Rental Boat Guy found him, up underneath the dock, wedged about mid-ship from Marquesa. I couldn't coax him out, and he wasn't about to get back in the water to where he could reach land on his own.  I considered jumping in after him, but the water is down to about 72 degrees, the marina is full of nasty eel grass, and I probably would have got scratched all too pieces trying to get him back and up the ladder.  I decided to untie the dinghy from the port side of the boat, and was walking it around the stern where I could get in it from the dock.  Willis was howling, I was hurrying to get to him, and that was my HUGE mistake. In my haste trying to scramble around the cockpit, I got my toes stuck in between the backstay and stern rail and took a tumble down into the cockpit.  I knew I hurt my toes, as they were splayed to the left, but the endorphins and adrenaline of trying to save Willis let me forget about it for the time being.  Rental Boat Guy untied the stern line and spring line and pushed Marquesa away from the dock with a boat hook while I pulled myself along and under the dock in the dinghy.  After some sweet talking to get him closer to me, I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pitched him into the bottom of the dink.  I didn't want his back claws poking a hole in the inflatable tubes.  I then lifted Willis up onto the dock, and had Rental Boat Guy hang onto him until I could get myself up the ladder and the dink secured.  Willis was a shaking shivering mess, and I noticed his back paw was bleeding.  It looked like he tore a nail trying to get himself up onto the rocks.  I didn't want him licking himself with all that saltwater in his fur, so I carried him by the scruff again, hosed him down with a garden hose, and hobbled back into the boat.

That's one upset puddy tat.

I pitched him on down the ladder, and closed him down below so I could retie Marquesa and get the cockpit straightened out.  When I went below to check on him, of all places, he jumped his soaking wet self up to our bed and was LAYING ON THE KEYBOARD OF MY LAPTOP!  Another pitch off the bed, (by now, he is none too pleased with me either for all the pitching going on) and I furiously set to work trying to dry between each of the keys.  I also noticed that we was bleeding pretty good from his paw, as he got blood all over our bed linens.  Well, with all of this commotion, he literally had the pee scared out of him, and went in his litter box to do his business (while I was drying off the laptop).   You should have seen him when he stepped out of his box.  All four legs, his tail and his belly looked as if he was in a full body cast.  He was soaked, mind you, and I buy Scoop Away litter so I can simply pitch his mess overboard.  That litter was one huge clump ALL OVER HIS BODY.  It was the only laughable moment in the whole ordeal.  He didn't want to even take a step he was so weighted down and clumped up with kitty litter!  Poor Willis was having the morning from H. E. Double Hockey Sticks and I was right there with him. So once more, I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, hobbled up the stairs, off the boat, and down the dock to spray him down AGAIN with the garden hose.  By now, I could hardly bear any weight, even on the heel of my left foot.  Years ago, I fell off a ladder and broke my wrist when we were building the log cabin, and this was feeling like a broken bone or two in my left foot.  OUCH.

I called Cap'n on his cell (he was out rummaging with Kenny, Fran, and Mamaw),and told him I needed him to come home, that I got hurt trying to save Willis.  He was home within minutes and my pain was about a 9.  He called his sister, Diane, as she busted some toes a couple of years ago.  She also works as an Xray and ultrasound tech at Fisherman's Hospital here in town.  I didn't want to be the cause of a bill from the ER, but I was hurting, and something needed to be done.  The two Tylenol I had taken hadn't begun to even touch the pain.  To make a long story longer, I have a clean break straight across my pinkie toe, and a fractured diagonal break on the fourth toe.  Not much can be done for broken toes but some tape, ice, a boot to wear, and some really good pain medicine. 

Add a McDonald's Sweet Tea to the equation, and I was ready to go home and take a Percocet nap.  The card with the kitty and his paw in a sling was from Polly.  The card, coupled with some chocolate from her was purrrrrfect.

The hubby and Fran helped me do laundry late this afternoon.  I had to tear down our bed to wash the bloody paw prints off.  Thankfully it all washed up just fine.  Tonight Five Sheets to the Wind plus a few stand-ins provided some musical entertainment on Paradise Pointe for the marina. 

Everyone brought a snack to share and we had an awesome time- it was great!

We also celebrated Big Ron's birthday. That makes two Ron's, and two birthdays, in two days!  And I can't exercise the cake off with my foot in a boot :(

The band took a break in time for us all to watch the sun go down.

Sister and Brother, what a great pic :)

The sun dropped out of the clouds, just in time to set on the water.  So pretty.

Willis eventually resurfaced, looking for some sympathy from Big Ken.

Martina tried to use my cane on Big Ken as the girls wanted Lucille to join them in "being bad" :)

She did!  Here's Martina, Polly, Fran, Lucille and Nancy laughing it up.

Bryan did his "Naked Song" which is always a crowd favorite!

As night fell, the wind picked up and we all needed our jackets.  Kenny was saying, "Can you see me now?!"

And the band kept playing on, well into the night.  It cracks me up when Bryan and Donnie sing "Happy Together" to each other with love in their eyes :)

The band even got Ken & Lucille and Kenny & Fran up dancing- I've never seen Kenny dance!  It looked like so much fun...I love dancing, but I won't be doing any dancing anytime soon.  Dang it.

It's safe to say that Willis T is now "resting comfortably", and it's time for me to join him.  G'nite, y'all!