Cougar: Claw Rake: Leg

The stroke ran high up your inner thigh and nicked the great artery there. Blood came in pulses through your fingers until a belt cinched above it and a hot iron kissed the wound. You are alive by the width of a claw, chalk-white, and going nowhere.

• Bedbound and flat for up to 7 days, standing risks tearing the clot loose
• Tourniquet bruising and a cauterized wound dressed twice daily
• Too weak to sit a horse; you drink beef tea and count ceiling boards
• /me lies gray and still, fingers finding the pulse in the bandaged thigh.

Recovery 7 days flat under a doctor's watch before you trust your feet; alone, this is where the story ends.·Doctor, urgently

One claw hooked the cord at the back of your thigh and cut it partway through. The leg folds without warning, like a hinge missing screws, and the doctor splints you straight and forbids the saddle.

• Leg splinted straight, crutch or cane only, no saddle for 6 days
• Deep sutured cut at the back of the thigh, kept clean under a wrap
• The knee buckles if you trust it, so you don't

Recovery 6 days splinted with a doctor's care, 12 buckling ones without.·Doctor, urgently

One long stroke opened your outer thigh from hip toward knee, deep as the second knuckle. Clean edges, mercifully, and a doctor's hour of silk to close the canyon.

• Forty stitches down the thigh, walking stiff-legged, no running or crouching for 5 days
• Wound drains at the low corner; dressings changed twice a day
• Trousers slit up the seam to fit over the bulk of bandaging
• /me swings the stiff leg wide with each step, like a gate on a bad hinge.

Recovery 5 days if the silk holds with a doctor's tying, 10 if it gapes.·Doctor required

A claw skated across your kneecap and dug in beside it, and the joint blew up tight as a waterskin by dusk. Whether anything inside tore, only the swelling knows.

• Knee splinted and wrapped, mounting from a block, stairs one at a time, for 5 days
• Deep gash beside the kneecap sutured and dressed
• The joint clicks when it bends; the doctor calls that a maybe

Recovery 5 days splinted with a doctor, 9 swollen ones without.·Doctor required

The rake ran the length of your calf muscle, splitting it shallow but long, ankle to knee. Every step stretches the cut; every stretch reminds you whose claws made it.

• Calf sutured and wrapped, a flat-footed hobble, no running or jumping for 4 days
• Boot shaft will not fit over the dressing; one boot, one moccasin
• Cramps in the night that bring tears

Recovery 4 days sutured with care, 8 hobbling ones with just a rag and resolve.·Doctor required

The claws found the two inches of shin between boot top and trouser and made a proper mess of exactly that. The boot took the rest and saved your tendon.

• Deep cuts ringing the upper shin, sutured, no kneeling or creek-wading for 4 days
• Boot shaft scored through; it drinks at every crossing now
• Bruised shinbone aches against the stirrup leather

Recovery 4 days stitched clean, 7 crusted ones if you skip the doctor.·Doctor required

One claw plowed down your shin and showed you the bone-white gleam at the bottom of the furrow before the blood filled it. Shin wounds forgive nothing; yours reminds you at every step.

• Furrowed shin sutured over the bone, no ladders, and wagons boarded like an old man, for 4 days
• Throbs at night with your boot off and your heart loud
• /me props the bad shin on a saddle and hisses through the unwrapping.

Recovery 4 days with a doctor guarding against bone-rot, 8 anxious ones alone.·Doctor required

You did not know how bad the ankle rake was until you dismounted and your boot squelched. The cuts had bled quiet into the leather for an hour, and pulling the boot off reopened every one.

• Ankle and lower calf cuts cleaned and sutured, riding fine, walking rationed for 4 days
• That boot is blood-stiff and a half size smaller until it is worked soft again
• Lightheaded the first evening; eat red meat and sit down

Recovery 3 days stitched and fed on a doctor's say-so, 6 pale ones without.·Doctor required

One long shallow scratch the whole length of your thigh, straight as a surveyor's line. It bled just enough to glue trouser to leg by the time you got home.

• Long scabbed line down the thigh, pulling tight when you squat for 3 days
• Soaking the trousers off the wound is its own small ceremony

Recovery 3 days scabbing, doctor or no; keep it clean and keep walking.·Doctor advised

Your leather chaps took three of the four claws and died in service. The one that got through left a shallow cut and a bone bruise you will feel in the saddle.

• One plastered cut and a deep thigh bruise, saddle-sore misery for 3 days
• Chaps flayed open down one leg, past any saddler's sympathy
• /me pats the ruined chaps like a horse that broke its leg doing right.

Recovery 2 days for the cut, 3 for the bruise; the chaps are done.·Doctor advised

Shallow rakes and one solid claw-punch to the thigh muscle that dead-legged you like a mule kick. Nothing needs sewing; everything needs sitting.

• Dead-leg limp, no running or dancing for 3 days, and mounting is a production
• Shallow scratches salved under the trouser
• The limp shows worst when you know folks are watching

Recovery 3 days of shuffle with liniment twice a day; a doctor would charge for the same advice.·Doctor advised

One claw flicked through the soft crease behind your knee, shallow but placed with malice. Every step bends the cut; every bend reopens the sting.

• Plastered cut in the knee crease, you walk peg-legged to spare it for 3 days
• Stairs down are worse than stairs up
• Sitting cross-legged is off the menu

Recovery 3 days if you keep it straight, 5 if you keep forgetting.·Doctor advised

The rake itself was shallow, but the cat's weight dropping off you twisted your ankle in a root hole. Two small problems teaming up into one respectable limp.

• Ankle wrapped tight and a scratched calf salved, walking stick for 3 days
• Boot laced loose over the swelling
• /me leans on the green-cut stick, waving off help a beat too slow.

Recovery 3 days wrapped, treated or not; the ankle sets the schedule.·Doctor advised

A single shallow line from mid-thigh to calf, no deeper than a bramble's best work. It welts up pink and proud, which is roughly how you tell it.

• One welted scratch line, salved for 2 days
• Stings in the bathhouse enough to make you hiss

Recovery 2 days of sting; soap, salve, done.·No doctor needed

Heavy trousers ate most of the stroke. Three ragged tears in the cloth, three faint scratches under them, and a cold knee all the way home.

• Faint scratches painted with iodine, itching for 2 days
• Trousers patched at the knee like a schoolboy's

Recovery A day or two of itch; the sewing kit works harder than you heal.·No doctor needed

One claw tip caught above your boot heel as the cat pushed off, a nick just deep enough to notice and shallow enough to ignore wrongly. Keep it clean or learn better.

• Small plastered nick above the heel, rubbing on the boot for 2 days
• You pad it with wool and walk a touch tender

Recovery 2 days plastered; only carelessness can make it worse.·No doctor needed

Four faint scratch lines down the outside of your thigh, none deeper than a cat's complaint. By morning they are red stripes; by Sunday, a story.

• Four faint stripes, salved once and mostly ignored for 2 days
• Itching at the scab stage tests your character

Recovery 2 days to scab and quiet down.·No doctor needed

The claws opened your boot shaft from ankle to top like a letter, and the tendon beneath never felt a whisper. The bootmaker will weep; you will not.

• Not a mark on the leg, the boot shaft flaps like a preacher's sleeve
• One boot resoled or replaced; you walk lopsided to the cobbler

Recovery Nothing to heal; the boot took the whole sentence.·No doctor needed

It leapt at you mounted, and the claws meant for your thigh plowed the saddle fender instead as your horse spun. Four furrows in good leather, one thin scratch on you, and a horse that earned its oats.

• One thin scratch above the knee, washed once and forgotten
• Saddle fender scored deep, every rider who sees it asks
• Your horse gets the good apple and knows why

Recovery Nothing worth the word; the saddle carries the scars.·No doctor needed

As it raked down your leg and dropped away, you kicked out on raw instinct, and your spur rowel caught it square across the muzzle. It somersaulted backward, screamed once, and quit the country. One thin scratch on your calf, and a notch in that rowel you will point to for the rest of your natural life.

• One thin scratch on the calf, healed in 2 days
• The nicked spur rowel never gets polished, that notch is the proof
• /me spins the rowel with a thumb, letting the nick catch the firelight.

Recovery A scratch and a swagger; both settle within the week.·No doctor needed