May 13th – Mother’s Day postponed, cat update and mailbox mess!

Getting this up early because I intend to crack open a book and read the rest of the night and don’t want to forget.

Sometimes, we need to assess the status of a day and decide that some items on the to do list just need to be dropped or pushed off a bit in order to maintain our sanity. I know this is a really hard thing for many people to do and I’ve certainly been guilty in the past of taking on way too much and then getting stressed and passing that on to anyone else I was around.

Not today.

After my morning news programs and figuring out a budget until payday and a way to at least give the vets office a down payment, I went off to get gas and groceries. Our Mother’s Day plan was an early dinner (trying to get in between the lunch & dinner crowds) that meant I would need to leave the house between 2:30-3:00 because I would need to pick up 15 from his dad’s house creating a pretty big looping route to the targeted restaurant.

I kept waiting for the vet to call and say either a) they wanted to keep him another night or b) he’s all good, come and get him. Now, even with option b) I was thinking that leaving him here unsupervised for up to three hours was not the best plan. Especially right when we would normally be feeding them dinner. So, when the vet called at 1:30 to say she had removed the IV and catheter but that he was refusing food and water there so she hadn’t seen him pee yet, I knew someone would have to stay with him for sure. She wanted to send him home because she figured his was just being stubborn at that point and simply wanted to be home. So I made the decision to postpone the dinner because it will be much easier next week with 15 already at my house and of course we wont be worried about Chip.

Thankfully everyone involved agreed (thanks mom!) and 26 and I took off to get the little devil.

The vet tells us again that she needs to know he did three things 1) drink 2) eat 3) pee on his own. She understood his anti-pill tendencies and gave a few more suggestions on how to medicate him should he be in pain but agreed that we should avoid it if it stressed him out that much. We come home. He leaps out of the carrier and streaks upstairs. I follow him up and he is sitting near the water bowl I had put out and sniffs it, but not dice. Then he walks gingerly over to the upstairs litter box. Sniffs it. Gets in. Scratches the heck out of the litter. Then lays down in it! I mean, he sprawled as if he was trying to leave his scent in there (or simply to get litter all over himself? I don’t know!) Then he hops out! No pee – just a quick rest. So bizarre. Then he goes downstairs and straight into the covered litter box. In no time at all he is peeing. YAY! I get to it right away before the litter totally soaks it up to look for signs of blood – it looks all clear. Relief! Then he heads upstairs where I had put out some food and water for him and starts chowing down, then drinks quite a bit.

If you are keeping score, that was all 3 things the vet wanted him to do pretty much within the first 30 minutes he was back at home! Cantankerous kitty!

Amber keeps hissing at him if he gets too close since he smells overwhelmingly like vet office but she is also not walking around meowing as much so clearly she is happy he is home too. He’s been completely fine the whole afternoon eating and drinking some more and not uttering a word so we feel fine not trying to give him a pain pill despite the shaved leg where the IV was and that he is walking kind of gingerly since that catheter was only removed this morning.

Tomorrow I’ll report back to the vet and also talk to the office manager about making payments on the total. THat wont be fun, but hey – he is home, looking well and that is all that matters.

Meanwhile – does your mailbox look like this?

That was just two day’s worth. Yes, there are repeat offenders in there on back to back days! I honestly don’t think I have ever seen it this bad!! I am sure it is in response to everyone putting themselves on do not call lists or not even having a land line anymore (like me) so they figure they have to get their message out somehow. But man – that is a LOT of paper!! The election here (primary obviously) is June 5th so there are still 3 more weeks of this to look forward to. The thing is, 26 is a registered Independent and I am a Democrat so we are getting two voter’s worth of crap AND from multiple sources.

Lord, I just realized there are THREE big flyers there attacking ONE guy! Hmmmm…seems they are scared of him – perhaps I should check him out? (I already like him anyway!)