Miss Daisy began to cry. She was crying in the big carrier I had lined with the softest of soft towels in her human baby cry. It is poignant and makes me want to hug her. I think she knows that. If there had been somewhere to pull off the freeway to hug her, I would have pulled off to hug her.
I knew, knowing her, she'd like to watch out the window as I drove, so I rigged her carrier up high enough so she could watch. After that, no more crying. She was too engaged with the scenery and passing cars.
After a time, I glanced in at her, and she was sound asleep.
The vet clinic was very busy. An older doberman lounged stiffly at the feet of an older man. A super sized Siamese boy, crammed into a flimsy soft shell carrier, waited loudly beside his woman, whose nonstop texting might have annoyed him. Why could she not turn her attention to me, I could see him thinking. He wanted comfort and was so bored.
A young boxer bounced around like a young deer boings through a field, hopping, straight up, with no effort or motion. The boxer's tongue lolled out to one side. His eyes challenged laughing every set of eyes that pushed through the door.
The Siamese yowled again. The dobie farted loudly. A little girl laughed out loud at the sound, her mom too busy texting to hear the fart or the laugh.
Miss Daisy sat oblivious to all these sounds, crouched down, watching everything, sure the doberman meant to eat her, as his old man talked to him, "Another cat, looky there, yup, another cat. You've never seen so many cats have you. Yup. Another one. Do you need to go, boy? Don't worry, we're getting out of here soon. We'll find some grass, just hold on. Another cat, did you see?"
The receptionist joked they need a "take a number" machine. Like the DMV? I asked, smiling. "Only we're nicer," she said, smiling back. The old man said next time he had to renew his license he just wasn't going to do it. "Well, you can always play the old man card, if you get stopped," I suggested, "say you thought after you turned 70 you got a seniors citizen pass for free driving and pretty much everything else." He laughed and his doberman farted again.
In came a mini schnauzer and his man. "He's sick," he said, worried. "He came up the stairs last night and collapsed. This morning he vomited and won't eat." The schnauzer had its nose to everything, making the fat dog noises, through his nose as he did. I was waiting for the meds for Miss Daisy by then, reading my epic Steinbeck, East of Eden. I'd brought it along. I hope to finish it before one of my cats pees all over it. I almost asked how much chocolate he'd eaten. I don't know why I almost said that to him out loud. Just had this feeling. Dogs can't do chocolate but they sure try and some dogs get really sick on it.
I warned the vet about Miss Daisy's vet behavior, which isn't stellar. She likes to swing at them and scream at them. This vet wasn't fazed one bit. Whisked her off, was able to even draw blood without knocking her out, a first at vet clinic for Miss Daisy.
The stool samples I collected last night, after she went, and this morning, came up with nothing. Last night's sample was stinky green. This mornings' was orange. I scooped each out and into a plastic bag, then into a plastic freezer container, and popped them in the frig. This morning, they traveled with me in a bag with an ice pack wrapped in a towel.
Later the vet called me to say her geriatric bloodwork came back normal. No kidney failure. Her hyperthyroid test will be back Monday.
Well, at least she's not in kidney failure. Bacteria don't shed every time a cat poops so the fact no giardia or coccidia was found in her poop doesn't mean she doesn't have an overgrowth. She could have that, or a viral infection or inflammatory bowel or maybe she really cannot tolerate those Temptation cat treats she is addicted to. I've heard stories about cats that become ill if they eat too many of them. I will have to cut them from her diet. She will kill me. I will have to wear protective gear nights for awhile.
I came home with some strong cat probiotics and metronizadole, a very good intestinal medicine with anti inflammatory properties, that is also used to treat periodontal disease. Tastes awful, however.
She's all tuckered out now like me.
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| Buffy in a Basket |
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| Gretal Dozes in Window Box |
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| Electra Sulks |
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| Shady Shines |
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| Artsy Fartsy Sam |
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| Best Man Teddy |
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| Still Quirky After All These Years--Echo and Fantasia, Meesa's Girls, the Quirky Sisters are still totally strange. |
$300 electric bill. OMG!!! In the mailbox when I got home. No Christmas cards, just a bill from the grinch. Stealing Christmas again, that darn grinch. Get a life, freak. I shouldn't have opened it. I should have shredded it then after Christmas, called them to say I never got a bill, don't know what could have happened, must have gotten mixed up in all the Christmas shuffle. Maybe they would have bought it and I would have bought some time. I like denial. I like not knowing some things, like that I owe the grinch $300 for keeping some unwanted kitties warm in the garage with a space heater during single digit nights. OMG, $300?
I reacted. Crying, snorting, snuffling, wiping nose, staring at it more, getting up, pacing, kicking things, snorfling little sobs, now composing evil poems about the electric company and its rich rich CEO's, bent over, head in hands, now searching cupboards, frig, for alcohol or chocolate, shut off electric at the main (that'll show 'em), getting cold, turned the electric back on...waiting for house to warm up again, took the space heater out and smashed it in the driveway stepping into and overturning a litter box, soaking outside, full of soap and FREEZING water in the process, searching my soul for sins committed to cause such a high bill, now blaming that evil Lebanon woman who didn't fix her cats and left them all, so I'd end up with a space heater on them when it was zero degrees out, now wanting to dump her on top of Mt. Hood maybe, thinking how many cans I'll need to pick up to pay for that. Fuck it. I won't pay it all. If this is the beginning of the end of the end, as things spiral down, too much for me to pay for, to survive, then I will go out smiling, laughing even, and warm, with the heat on, when they drag me from here for not paying the entire bill, not forking over every last piece of skin on me, just to be allowed to live my little life in my little space with my sweet cats. Laughing even I will go! Cheers!
Fuck you, Grinch. I know you are responsible for sending me a $300 bill right before Christmas. You're such a bummer. Hey Grinch, come tip a glass with me, and meet these little kitties that stayed warm in my garage. Come on, be fun, you'll have a good time for once. I have a Santa hat!
Ok.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a warm night! Ho Ho Ho!
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