Thank you Aunt Betty

The fear of an Aunt armed with Iodine

A recent article in a favorite tech blog last week brought back some vivid memories from the past and forced a thankful revisit. The article is coming up but I'll just repaint the picture in my best 1973 memory mindset.

We made our regular trip down to my Grandparents house in the sumer time, all loaded up in our 1972 Vista Cruiser station wagon. I think it was the whole family and of course - our black labrador - Donegal.  This trip was a bit different because our neighbors from back home were with us or met us at   my grandparents house. The Boises were there as well in their big 70's station wagon.  As we pulled up the cinder driveway, the minute the car came to a halt - there was an immediate disembarkation /scramble from the boat. Of course - the shortest attention-spanned were first out - which typically was my siblings and I. However - in this case - the A.D.D. prize went to the dog. The happiest, friendliest Mutt you'd never trust to protect the house from a burglar.  Donegal LOVED all people and the only mean bone in his body was reserved for other dogs and Cats.  I would like to think he loved them as well, he just liked to show it by roughhousing / nibbling on them.

Did i mention Grandma had a Cat?   Not a house pet really.  More like an outdoor / scruffy / greasy  Feral cat that you were never tempted to touch or be friendly too. Smelled a bit too. Grandma usually had a old pie tin on the side porch to feed Smellycat ( which hung out under the porch )

SO, as I mentioned - Donegal was first out of the car and immediately spotted SmellyCat and kicked into warp drive for an side porch Pet Dust-up.  I remember several of us - quickly stepping in to stop Donegal from playing "Shake the Baby!" on SmellyCat .  And I , in a rare act of bravery - stepped in the fur spin-cycle to physically pull them apart and promptly got a Cat Fang through my finger.

Which...being 5(?) years old.... I am sure I was not quiet about.

Lucky (?) for me - other guests at my grandmothers included several aunts with Nursing backgrounds. This included my Aunt Betty. I am pretty sure either my aunt Catherine or aunt Clare was there as well as a co conspirator - but the memory of which has faded.

Well, apparently this whole  ~ Cat Bite thing ~  was a cause for serious concern amongst the family medical staff and prompted immediate RADICAL treatment.   Which...in the following years I wrote off as some kind of Over-zealous sadistic Old School Nursing.

Being brought into my grandmother's kitchen - I was forced to produce my wound for disinfection. And by this I mean - having someone hold my arm out while Aunt Betty poured half a gallon of iodine down the gaping hole in my finger. The Iodine was basically Hot Lava Battery acid.  Seriously -  I was screaming louder at the treatment than the wound.

And it got worse!  Aunt Betty insisted on a 3(?) times a day repeat disinfection!!  The whole weekend!!    I was seriously convinced she was doing this just to be mean to me. To this day - to speak the word iodine - brings this all back.....

So it was a bit of shock last week when I spotted this article online where the author got a friendly nibble from her pet cat.   ( click on title for article - its pretty startling....)

Why Cat Bites Are Pretty Much the Worst Thing Ever

It is interesting to take a burned-in childhood memory and make a needed revision. It is unfortunate the memory was written in the prism mentality of a 5 year old.  Sadly my aunt passed away just a short time ago. It would have been nice to make the revision together.

Thank you Aunt Betty

Mot