Thursday, September 12, 2013
Danger
Raising cactus must be a bit like raising wild animals.
A wise animal trainer will always keep the word "wild" in mind. Same with the cactus guy. These plants are just on the fringe of civilization. Not ready to be domesticated.
Not only is an animal trainer required to be on guard, s/he must also be ready to accept any responsibility if there are "accidents". If he gets bitten.
I was working with my cactus today and was rearranging.
One of the least tame cacti was just asking to be slipped into a new pot and so I did the job.
Earlier I had picked up a broken plant that the cat had knocked over. Not our cat. The one who comes into the yard to annoy Booker. Well, he is our cat in a way or Booker's but he doesn't live here.
The broken cactus was a special one. It had been drooping all summer and for some reason started to straighten itself up a week ago and had just finished the move to vertical. Of course, that is/was its problem. It became too tall for the cat to jump over on the way out of the yard. Up over the fence.
I was pretty careful. I got my leather gloves which are not really proof against a prick but a help and I used an empty cereal box to hold the remains on the way to the trash so that no one else would get bitten either. I only got one little pick in the process. Pretty good.
So here I am with my wildest meanest cactus. Wild and mean because it has highly visible "teeth" which can really hurt and there are also almost invisible little tentacles that emanate further out from the bad ones. They are invisible.
The movement to another pot was no big deal. The soil was very dry and in a clump. All I had to do was slip the new pot onto the old.
I somehow let down my guard and tried doing this without gloves. Whammo! It got me.
As best I can reconstruct one of the little tendrils caught me and I lost my grip and then I fell right into the jaws of the big bastards.
I dropped the plant. As usual, it didn't get hurt.
But my hand and thumb hurt like hell and that is not an easy over and out kind of hurt.
The spines have poison on them and it releases into the cut. The pain is immediately heavy duty.
And you can feel it working its way up the finger into the blood stream. The arm can even get numb. It is still a little weird. Numb.
No gloves, a disrespect for history (this has happened with this cactus before) and a little bad luck and I am in the infirmary for a few minutes. That means I took a break, stood back, shook my hand, sucked my thumb on the mistaken theory that the venom will come out if you do that. It may but then it is in my mouth. Good that it doesn't.
These are all autonomic responses. Unconscious appeals to the primitive mind for relief. As basic as life itself.
Back in the cage you nasty bastard. I put on my gloves. No need for them now.
This cactus is my favorite plant in the entire garden. Earned respect.
