Well, okay, the title is a lie-- I found Percy a few days after his most recent escape, hanging out by the downstairs foodbowl. I said hi, he said "Meow." I scooped him up and he's back here with me. (Seriously, as soon as I got home from the airport, there he was.) So he's back safe and sound. And in fact, this time around he doesn't seem to have gotten into any fights.
[Sorry-- all the pictures below are from my phone-- it was closer to hand than the camera. You know how cats are; you get up to get the camera and they move from whatever pose you wanted.]
Here's a picture of Percy one week after he was found after his first escape. Kinda gross, but those were all scratches and scabs. There are a lot more that you can't see in the picture. (I was mostly taking it as a reference shot to see if the one below his left eye was getting better-- it has, as you'll see in the next picture. But he was scratched all across his face, had a pretty nasty puncture under his jawline, and two more nasty ones on the top of his head. I think he may have tangled with a dog, perhaps? Something that actually had Percy's head in its mouth? Eek. He also had scratches all along his shoulder blades.]
And here he is today-- you can certainly still see where the scratches are healing and it'll be a while before his fur grows back all the way, but he's getting better. At the tippy top of his head you can see a furrow where there was a scratch (now healed) but the fur is missing. Same thing on the right side of his face-- he's healed up, the scabs are even gone (you can just see new skin) but the fur will take a while.
Poor little beastie. He's still very handsome, I swear-- these pictures don't do him justice!!
And he's getting comfortable-- here's his tummy. :)
Right now he's wandering around meowing fiercely. I have no idea what he wants at the moment...
This week we'll try that whole neutering thing again, and he'll also get his second set of shots. The shipping-him-to-Germany plan is harder than anticipated, but we're working on it.
(Speaking of which, thank you very much to the donor who put a few dollars in the 'jar' to help unite Percy and his momma. Yay!)