You're not going to believe this.....

Last fall I had two little kittens show up at my house. I housed and fed them over the winter and I named them Ruff and Tuff. Tuff for the most part is gone, but Ruff is pretty much around all the time and has won the tittle of my "garage cat." I've pretty much adopted her. Anyways, coming home late tonight I was in a hurry to take the trash out and start to head toward bed. As I'm petting her, she has this black thing hanging out of her mouth, which I thought was dirt or something. She kept trying to rub up against me which she normally doesn't do. So as I look closer, she has a fish hook stuck in her mouth with a piece of fishing string attached to it. Of course several things pop into my head all at once. First being, how in the hell am I going to get this out. I've never picked her up and I am unable to think of any safe way of doing this. We do it for people all the time at work when people come in with hooks in various places. It is actually quite simple. But to do it on a cat, a wild cat at that (good rhyme there), I don't think I could do it. Second the cost of a vet bill popped into my head. Who knows how much something like that would run, I'm sure they would have to knock her out somehow. And I have no idea how I would be able to trap this cat to be able to take it to the vet. What a hassle that will be. Third, the thought of how this whole situation happened. Obviously she has been hanging around someone else's garage or something. Could you imagine the sight of someone going outside to find a cat dragging their fishing pole through the yard in an attempt to get away. Somehow they were able to get close enough to cut the line. Probably by reeling her in and thus pushing the hook deeper into her skin. So after some thought, I decided I would go out in the garage and dress in some type of protective clothing and try to take it out myself. I figured I would put on my snow pants (good and thick) and my big heavy winter gloves and see what I could do. Mind you it is in the 60s tonight (I know, thats nothing compared to out west and the south), but it didn't sound appealing to me at all. So I decided to peak into the garage and get a better look before I put my armor on. Ruff wasn't there. I checked a while later and she still wasn't there. Great, now what. So after thinking about it longer, I decided, what could it hurt to leave it in for a day or so. I have a bunch of little cousins coming over tomorrow, I'm sure they would get a kick out of it. I really don't have much time to run to the vet anyways. And maybe, just maybe, somehow it will come out on its own. I actually feel sorry for the little cat. I bet that is painful. Or maybe its not, hard telling. But if I were to leave it in for a day, is that some type of animal cruelty or is it just optimism that it will come out somehow? Ugh.