My head is stuck

So, I like plants and animals. I always have. I have owned a series of cats, turtles, newts, fish, frogs and snails. (A snail is perhaps the easiest pet to keep, as the nastier their container gets, the happier they are. But I digress.)

I own no pets at the moment, but I do feed the feral cats at school (work). I used to feed them daily, but lately, due to a big construction project tearing up their world, or some other reason known only to the feline mind, they haven't been around in the morning or evening. Some of them will disappear for weeks and then show up for no apparent reason. 5 or 6 of them were here every day all summer. They have been coming around less and less as school is in session and they don't like all the people and the cars. One showed up today, as we have no school on Columbus day, so I went out and dumped a can of food out. A second one showed up. The first one was frightened and ran off a ways. These two cats are siblings and eat together all the time, but not today, at least at first. The first cat, the one with the bandit mask, was very wary and stood off a bit. The second cat was wearing a red and white babushka.Well, that was my first impression.

What it was actually, was a tubular plastic wrapper that used to be full of hamburger. Like a large sausage skin, but made of vinyl. Evidently, the kitty had been trying to get the last morsel out of the wrapper, and had been unable to back out of it. The cat eventually had the major portion of it wrapped around her neck, and her head was sticking through. Comical, yes. Dangerous, maybe. I thought, I need to try to get that off of her. Now, I have (two small and one big) scratches on the back of my hand. Why would the cat scratch me? Well, I grabbed at something that was hanging around her neck and held on, as she leaped in the air and bared all of her claws. Was it worth it? Yes, I will heal. I washed the wounds, so I should be OK. The cat will be happier, now, even though I scared the heck out of her. I don't think she has any idea that I was trying to help her. She was in defensive mode. If she had known me and my heart, she would have laid down and waited while I got some scissors and carefully, slowly, gently removed her burden. Fear! What a waste of the cat's energy and my skin.

"Swing down from the winner's seat, ears ringing to an ancient beat, lie down in the grass, lie down in the grass! A voice in the daytime, a dream at night, out the screen door, in the moonlight, LIE DOWN!" - Charlie Peacock