Cat Misadventures.

Cats!    Own one & you know you're alive.  They have a knack for turning a humdrum, ordinary sort of a day into something else entirely!

At present my mornings consist of something as dull as taking postage stamps of paper for our home business & putting them in blotting books to dry.  This exercise requires no expertise.  You don't need to know a single thing about stamps ~ which are nearly as dull & boring as golf ~ or watching wet paint dry.

In this exercise of dulldom I am generally accompanied by a cat ~ or two.  They are either sprawled at my feet or curled upon my kitchen benchtops keeping an eye on all my doings because obviously I cannot be trusted to get my life together without their help.

My cats, however, are ragdoll crosses: double coated, semi~longhaired animals with minimal moult & we have gone from winter to full blown summer heatwave almost overnight.  The only thing making this bearable at present is the westerly winds blowing at a steady 25+ knots, & the most pleasant place to endure all this is on our verandah, cool but out of the full force of the wind. Guess where my cats have been?

This is all fine.  We have always given our cats the run of outdoors because by nature cats are outdoor creatures, though some like their creature comforts more than others.  Marlow is rarely far from his people & not generally the cat I worry about. Kirby ~ well Kirby is super smart, super stubborn, a hunter of anything than moves & generally the sort of trouble you don't want.  Marlow is a sloth.  He lies around waiting to be loved on. He is not the one I expect to have to rush to the vets at a minutes notice.

Mid afternoon Marlow wandered inside to be sick.  Why do cats do that?  Marlow is always throwing up so I didn't think much of it but some time later I noticed a thick spool of drool running continuously from his mouth & he kept stretching his mouth as if it was bothering him.  I had a look but could see nothing wrong.  He was showing no signs of paralysis, indicating a tick, & seemed bright eyed & alert apart from continually wandering up to me with all this drool. *sigh* I rang the vet.

I hate ringing the vet.  It always means money I don't have.  Sure enough ~ Bring him straight in. This sounds easier than it is.  Apart from wrangling my rather large cat into a carrier it means finding a boat, lugging him in a car to the boat, a boat trip, another car trip & then the vets ~ all of which stresses him to the max. And guaranteed, once on that boat all his symptoms strangely disappear!

Now being a ragdoll, Marlow is pretty easy to handle though once in the carrier he does what he does when he doesn't want to be removed from a chair: He hunkers down in one corner, applies all of his not inconsiderable weight into defying gravity, & requires upending to get him out.  I felt for the vet.

A preliminary consultation had me looking down the barrel of sedation & exrays ~ & huge expense.  The expense had to be paid before I left the surgery.  Panicked phone call to the MOTH.  However on a second examination the vet was able to get a really good look at Marlow's mouth & under his tongue ~ all very swollen, as was his throat. I wondered if a bee or a wasp might have stung him...? As he was otherwise fine the vet suggested a steroid shot.  My bill plummeted from $500+ to just $95.00.

Just the same, Marlow is now officially, a more expensive cat than Kirby! Everyone jolly glad to be home again safe & sound.