[Lamplighter]

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly....

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - An Oregon man who contracted a rare case of bubonic plague,
a disease that ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages, is expected to lose his fingers and some toes,
but should be well enough to leave the hospital within weeks, his family said on Wednesday.

Paul Gaylord, 59, spent almost a month in intensive care, most of it on life support
after he was infected while trying to take a rodent from the mouth of his cat on June 2.
The choking cat bit his hand and scratched him.

Now, my daughter-the nurse, says the background story from the family is more involved...

The cat caught a mouse... seemingly a large "mouse"... but couldn't swallow it.
The man thought the cat was choking, and so tried to get the mouse out of the cat's mouth.
The cat bit him.
The man thought the cat was choking, and so took to his gun to put the cat out of his misery.
Now, on with the new article...

Doctors at a clinic near his home in Prineville, Oregon,
about 150 miles southeast of Portland, first prescribed an antibiotic
for cat scratch fever, according to his niece, Andrea Gibb.

Several days later, his condition worsening, Gaylord returned to the clinic
and was rushed to a local hospital. He was then transferred to a larger hospital
in nearby Bend, Oregon.

"The doctors said he wasn't going to make it," Gibb said, adding that her uncle
is expected to lose all of his fingers, which have turned a black, and most of his toes.
"He has had ups and downs, but he is very strong."

The background story continues...
Since the man has something that is obviously NOT cat scratch fever,
the family goes home and digs up the cat's remains and delivers it to the lab.
The lab says they isolated plague bacteria from the cat.
Now that, in and of itself, is a news story. But to continue...

The plague, often spread by flea bites or through contact with a sickened animal,
is believed to have killed around 25 million Europeans during the Middle Ages,
when it was known as the Black Death.

Today, it is treated with antibiotics and only an average of seven cases a year
are reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The cases are virtually all in the western states.

Oregon has had three cases since 1995 and none of the victims have died,
according to the Crook County Health Department.

Next our question is, was the "mouse" still in the cat's mouth ?
This is relevant because here in the west, because the plague bacteria
are carried by fleas on rodents, particularly the California ground squirrel.


So be cautious about feeding the local campground fauna.