Cougar: Bite: Arm

You rammed your forearm into its mouth to keep the teeth off your throat, and the shearing back teeth cut through the cords above your wrist. The hand hangs quiet now, fingers curled and unanswering, and the doctor speaks of silk, splints, and, if the rot sets in, the bonesaw.

• That hand cannot grip at all, no gun, rope, or reins on that side for up to 7 days
• Forearm splinted palm-up, punctures wicked open with carbolic gauze
• Any gray stink from the wound makes the bonesaw talk turn serious
• /me cradles the splinted arm, watching fingers that will not curl.

Recovery 7 days splinted under a doctor's daily care before you learn what the hand keeps; untreated, gangrene makes the choice for you.·Doctor, urgently

A slicing tooth opened the back of your forearm to the tendons, white cords bare in the wound before the blood covered them. The doctor's needle worked a full hour by lamplight.

• Grip at quarter strength, you can hold reins, not a rope or a fighting knife, for 5 days
• Long sutured slice, splinted so the cords heal at length
• Fingers spring open if you squeeze too hard

Recovery 6 days splinted with a doctor's sutures, 12 clumsy ones if you wrap it yourself.·Doctor, urgently

Both fangs went in until they met bone, top and bottom of the forearm, and the arm rang like a struck rail. The bone held, the doctor says, but it is bruised to the marrow.

• Arm slung and useless for anything heavier than a coffee cup for 5 days
• Four deep punctures kept open to drain, morning and night
• Deep ache down to the wrist bones in cold air
• /me eases the arm out of the sling one careful inch at a time.

Recovery 5 days slung under a doctor's watch, 10 if you tough it out and the holes stay clean.·Doctor required

The jaws clamped square across your wrist and squeezed until something creaked. A hairline crack, says the doctor, splinting it straight; the punctures are almost an afterthought.

• Wrist splinted rigid for 6 days, no shooting, roping, or dealing cards with that hand
• Punctures around the splint edges cleaned daily
• Buttons and buckles become a one-handed education

Recovery 6 days splinted by a doctor, or a crooked wrist that aches every winter after.·Doctor required

The shearing teeth at the back of its jaw opened your forearm like a skinning knife, one long clean cut running from elbow toward wrist. Clean edges take silk well, the doctor says, sewing.

• A dozen silk stitches down the forearm, nothing load-bearing on that arm for 4 days
• Sleeve rolled loose over the dressing; tight cuffs are the enemy
• The scar will be a straight white line folks mistake for knife work

Recovery 4 days with sutures, 8 with a whiskey-washed rag and hope.·Doctor required

Fangs top and bottom, four punctures straight through the meat of the forearm. Puncture wounds close sweet on the surface and rot underneath, so yours get packed open with gauze twice a day.

• Arm bandaged wrist to elbow, no heavy lifting for 4 days
• Gauze wicks changed morning and night, it stings enough to swear by
• Red streaks climbing toward the elbow mean a doctor at a gallop

Recovery 4 days draining clean with care, 8 festering ones without.·Doctor required

It bit, set its feet, and shook, and the punctures tore sideways into ragged gashes before you got your knife working. Torn edges heal slower than cut ones, and yours are torn proper.

• Ragged gashes trimmed and sutured, the arm stays slung for 4 days
• Bruising from elbow to knuckles from the wrenching
• /me rolls the sleeve down quick when folks stare at the mess.

Recovery 4 days sutured and slung, 7 ugly ones if you let it knit on its own.·Doctor required

The bite was middling, but the cat's mouth was foul with old kill, and by the second morning the punctures sat proud, hot, and angry. The doctor opened them back up and you learned some new words.

• Wound reopened, flushed with carbolic, and packed, twice-daily dressings for 4 days
• Low fever the first 2 days; you sweat through a shirt a night
• Arm too tender for a coat sleeve; you wear the coat draped

Recovery 4 days once the carbolic wins, 9 sweating ones if you doctor it yourself.·Doctor required

You yanked the arm back as the jaws closed, so the fangs plowed furrows instead of sinking holes. Ugly to look at, shallow to sew.

• Furrowed forearm under a wrap, tender for 3 days
• Grip sound but stinging, you favor the other hand for hot pans and rope
• The scars will look worse than they ever were, which has its uses

Recovery 3 days wrapped, treated or not; keep dirt out and it is nothing.·Doctor advised

Your heavy coat sleeve filled its mouth and took most of the bite. Underneath you carry an arc of tooth bruises and two pricks that barely bled.

• Forearm bruised in a neat dental arc, sore to the touch for 3 days
• Two shallow pricks under plaster
• The coat sleeve is chewed past mending, rolled up, it tells the story

Recovery 3 days of bruise-ache; the pricks close in one.·Doctor advised

One fang caught the web between your thumb and forefinger and tore it a half inch. Small wound, big opinion, everything you own suddenly needs that exact piece of hand.

• Two stitches in the thumb web, no revolver hammer work or tight knots for 3 days
• Throbs in time with your pulse the first night
• /me shakes out the bandaged hand after every attempted knot.

Recovery 3 days stitched, 5 if you let it gape and scar thick.·Doctor advised

More crush than cut, the jaws bruised the arm bone-deep and the whole forearm ballooned tight and shiny by nightfall. The skin is barely broken; the meat under it disagrees.

• Arm slung and rested for 3 days; making a fist is the day's ambition
• Swelling wrapped snug, arm carried high on a folded blanket at night
• Fingertips tingle when the wrap is too tight

Recovery 3 days slung and compressed, 5 throbbing ones if you work through it.·Doctor advised

Shallow punctures, but they bled with enthusiasm, and everything you touched for an hour came away red. The wound is small; the laundry is not.

• Punctures pressure-wrapped, seeping through the first two dressings for 2 days
• The other hand does the shaking, dealing, and eating for a day
• Blood-crusted cuff until washing day

Recovery 2 days wrapped; it looks far worse than it counts.·Doctor advised

A quick bite and release, four tooth pricks in a tidy diamond on your forearm. The whiskey in the holes hurt worse than the cat did.

• Four iodine-painted pricks, itchy by day 2
• A diamond of little marks that makes a fine saloon exhibit

Recovery 2 days of itch; wash daily and forget it.·No doctor needed

One tooth skated down your forearm without ever setting, leaving a scratch like a nail pulled through tallow. It welted up proud and red within the hour.

• Single raised scratch from elbow to wrist, stinging under sleeves for 2 days
• You roll that sleeve up more than strictly needed

Recovery A day or two of sting; salve if you are feeling fancy.·No doctor needed

Your work glove went into its mouth, half on your hand and half off, and the cat got mostly leather. You got a nipped knuckle and a glove you buried out of respect.

• One split knuckle under plaster, stiff for 2 days
• A single glove, the survivor, tucked in your belt
• /me flexes the plastered knuckle and eyes the treeline.

Recovery 2 days for the knuckle; the glove is past mourning.·No doctor needed

It mouthed your forearm and let go, deciding you were more trouble than dinner ought to be. A perfect oval of tooth bruises, and not one broke the skin.

• Oval of tooth-dents purpling on the forearm for 2 days
• You show it to exactly everyone

Recovery 2 days for the bruises to speak their piece and fade.·No doctor needed

The jaws snapped shut on your loose cuff and empty sleeve, and for one absurd second you and a cougar played tug-of-war over a shirt. The cloth tore; both parties fled.

• One red scrape where a tooth grazed skin through the cloth
• Sleeve torn to the elbow, tailor or trophy, pick one

Recovery Wash the scrape once; the shirt is the only casualty.·No doctor needed

The rawhide cuff you wear for rope work took both fangs, and they stuck there half a second, long enough for you to hammer its skull with your free fist. It quit the field with your cuff and its dignity.

• Wrist pressure-sore under where the cuff crushed down for a day
• Knuckles skinned on cougar skull, wear them proud

Recovery A day of sore wrist and skinned knuckles; nothing more.·No doctor needed

As the jaws opened for your throat you drove your forearm deep past the fangs and into the hinge of its jaw, where a cat cannot bite down. It gagged, clawed air, and quit you entirely. You fought a cougar hand to mouth and walked away with slobber to the elbow and one shallow score to show.

• One shallow score along the forearm, washed and forgotten in 2 days
• The story is yours forever; witnesses swear it grows a foot each telling
• /me holds up a forearm shiny with dried slobber and grins.

Recovery A wash, a whiskey, and an audience, healed by morning.·No doctor needed