A good day

One of the biggest things that I look forward to on the weekends is sleeping in. It's especially sweet when Bob is out of town, as he is this weekend (duck hunting or goose hunting or something like that).

But this morning I didn't get to sleep in, I had to get up at to take the cats to the vet at 8:30. I had originally had a later appointment last weekend, but the vet had a family emergency and had to be out of town, so I had to reschedule, and this was the latest slot they had available. And I didn't want to put it off again, because I really needed to get Dinah in there.

She's been peeing in odd places, and that generally indicates a bladder or kidney problem, or something related to the litter box, anyway. We thought maybe it was the anal gland thing again, and I was able to take her in to see my vet's partner and get that done last week, but it didn't seem to help. So I took them both in today for their annual check-ups and vaccinations, and asked the vet about Dinah's problem.

He wasn't able to get a urine sample from her, but he said that her bladder didn't feel right to him--normally it's more malleable or something--and he thought she probably had a bladder infection. He asked me whether I would like to "pill her" or give her injections -- I asked if he couldn't just give her an injection that would last a week, and he said no, unfortunately.

He showed me how to grab her head and force her mouth open, but frankly, it seemed like the injections would be less traumatizing. You just scruff them hard and give the injection into the loose neck skin. I figure Bob will enjoy that . . .

I was over $200 today, and the vet says that Pyewacket needs her teeth cleaned, that he thinks she's developing infection under the gum line and is in danger of losing teeth. He said he'll send me an estimate in the mail, but I know it's going to be a fortune -- more than Dinah's was a few months ago.

My vet is apparently the premier feline dental surgeon of the world or something. He said that he gets cases from all over. Which is good, of course, it means that he's good at what he does. But also, we wonder whether he's more likely to advise dental surgery than he would otherwise be.

I do believe that when you take an animal into your home, you are committed to taking care of them and doing whatever needs to be done, but when they start costing more than the humans, it does give you pause.

I talked to Bob on the phone after I got home, and while he was dismayed, and isn't sure it's absolutely necessary, he said that whatever I wanted to do was fine, that he didn't want the cats to suffer, and we should do whatever we need to do for them. I guess I'll wait 'til I get the estimate from him, and then decide.

Pyewacket likes the vet, and he likes her. He's always happy to see her, and she rubs against him and rolls around on the floor; she's such a little ham that she makes him laugh. After he had examined both cats and given them the various vaccines, and talked to me about Dinah, I was getting ready to leave, and he said, "I always enjoy Pyewacket so much. When I saw that you were down on the schedule for today, I thought, 'I know today will be a good day!'"

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