A tale of two kitties
We now have a much more hale and hearty Comet in our family. But of course therein hangs yet another tale...
We'd taken the cat to the shelter once again to allow his family, if he had one, to claim him. Today was to have been the last day of waiting, so efbq called them up and inquired about the cat.
"Oh, that one," said the worker there. "We have a family waiting to adopt him. Thanks for calling!"
"Yes, that family would be us," she said. "When should we come get him?"
"Oh, no," she said. "That's not the name we have down here."
efbq then demanded to speak to the woman who took Comet in, and bit her lip to avoid lighting into anyone...and then waited. For several minutes. Finally she gave up and was about to call back and really give 'em hell, when they called us. It was the woman who took him in, and she was very apologetic. The tag with our name on it had fallen off the cage, and in the meantime, another family had come in and claimed him - so, it was reasoned, "perhaps it would be better if you...y'know, came and got him now."
So efbq called our vet and made an appointment for the impending arrival and did some shuttling around with the kids - it was Kid-1's BFF's birthday today, so she went there - and I got myself ready to go in the meantime, waiting for her to return. One of the things that involved was taking my meds, which I hadn't yet. I had a can of Coke and grabbed my prescription bottle, took out one, put it on the laptop I was working on, which in turn was on the dining room table...and then thought, "Hmmmm. Better if I take it with water."
So I headed into the kitchen to get a glass of water - took about maybe fifteen seconds - and returned to find the cat on my chair, NOM NOMing on something. This was not unusual; Captain will periodically comb for crumbs and whatnot and has yet to meet any food that we eat that he will not. I mean, c'mon: salad? Pretzels?
So I went to take the pill and -- ah, jeez, I must've left it in the kitchen. Head back to the kitchen, check the counter...huh, where could I have left it? I remember taking it out and putting it --
Two...plus two...equals...??
Ran back out and looked. Captain is looking at me like, "What?"
Hollered downstairs for Kid-2 to watch this beast while I tried madly to find that number that DW had just called to make the appointment and get a vet on the phone. DW arrived about that time, had the number in her recent outgoing calls, and between us we were able to speak with one fairly quickly.
Turns out that a) the medication I take for my blood pressure is the same stuff they give to cats for the same reason - oh, that makes me feel better; I'll be looking for my distemper shots soon - and b) the 5 mg dose that I take is only 2 mg over what a normal daily dose is for such a cat of the size that Captain is (which is whalloping big, in fact...not just fat, though he could probably stand to lose some, but just big all around). The most likely reaction the cat will have is to be kinda loopy for the rest of the day, but nothing too much worse.
So we breathe a sign of relief, leave Kid-2 to watch after the thoroughly sedated cat, and off through the rain and back into the city we went, first to pick up our cat carrier, which my sister had borrowed, and next to head to the shelter, right there next to Ravens Stadium, and get the new cat. We'd said he was either sick or exhausted when we picked him up; we now know it was decidedly the latter. He was an active kitty and a little purring maniac who turned out to be almost exactly Captain's age. We got him home with a minimum of any further fuss (except for one scratch when we got him back in the carrier)...and then the introductions were made. If there is anything that'll snap a cat out of a drug-induced stupor faster than having another cat introduced into the house, particularly one that's smaller but still, as of now, has his goodiepouch intact and is used to life on the street in Baltimore, I don't know what it might be...and that's not a fact that I thought I'd ever know experientially, really...
Comet inspected the place and within about two minutes discovered the joys of going "wheeeee!" by playing with one of those plastic peel-off ties from the cap of a plastic milk jug, while Captain stood by with a fascinated look on his now-no-longer-woozy face, thinking, "Hey, wait...that's my gig." What followed was a lot of grrrr'ing and hissing and meowing and swatting and pouncing and chase-me games, interspersed with some aggressively friendly behavior on the part of both cats to the humans in the house, one because it was so very grateful to have a home, and the other because it was insecure and needed a bit of a cuddle.
Yes, we'll try to get some pictures.
We'd taken the cat to the shelter once again to allow his family, if he had one, to claim him. Today was to have been the last day of waiting, so efbq called them up and inquired about the cat.
"Oh, that one," said the worker there. "We have a family waiting to adopt him. Thanks for calling!"
"Yes, that family would be us," she said. "When should we come get him?"
"Oh, no," she said. "That's not the name we have down here."
efbq then demanded to speak to the woman who took Comet in, and bit her lip to avoid lighting into anyone...and then waited. For several minutes. Finally she gave up and was about to call back and really give 'em hell, when they called us. It was the woman who took him in, and she was very apologetic. The tag with our name on it had fallen off the cage, and in the meantime, another family had come in and claimed him - so, it was reasoned, "perhaps it would be better if you...y'know, came and got him now."
So efbq called our vet and made an appointment for the impending arrival and did some shuttling around with the kids - it was Kid-1's BFF's birthday today, so she went there - and I got myself ready to go in the meantime, waiting for her to return. One of the things that involved was taking my meds, which I hadn't yet. I had a can of Coke and grabbed my prescription bottle, took out one, put it on the laptop I was working on, which in turn was on the dining room table...and then thought, "Hmmmm. Better if I take it with water."
So I headed into the kitchen to get a glass of water - took about maybe fifteen seconds - and returned to find the cat on my chair, NOM NOMing on something. This was not unusual; Captain will periodically comb for crumbs and whatnot and has yet to meet any food that we eat that he will not. I mean, c'mon: salad? Pretzels?
So I went to take the pill and -- ah, jeez, I must've left it in the kitchen. Head back to the kitchen, check the counter...huh, where could I have left it? I remember taking it out and putting it --
Two...plus two...equals...??
Ran back out and looked. Captain is looking at me like, "What?"
Hollered downstairs for Kid-2 to watch this beast while I tried madly to find that number that DW had just called to make the appointment and get a vet on the phone. DW arrived about that time, had the number in her recent outgoing calls, and between us we were able to speak with one fairly quickly.
Turns out that a) the medication I take for my blood pressure is the same stuff they give to cats for the same reason - oh, that makes me feel better; I'll be looking for my distemper shots soon - and b) the 5 mg dose that I take is only 2 mg over what a normal daily dose is for such a cat of the size that Captain is (which is whalloping big, in fact...not just fat, though he could probably stand to lose some, but just big all around). The most likely reaction the cat will have is to be kinda loopy for the rest of the day, but nothing too much worse.
So we breathe a sign of relief, leave Kid-2 to watch after the thoroughly sedated cat, and off through the rain and back into the city we went, first to pick up our cat carrier, which my sister had borrowed, and next to head to the shelter, right there next to Ravens Stadium, and get the new cat. We'd said he was either sick or exhausted when we picked him up; we now know it was decidedly the latter. He was an active kitty and a little purring maniac who turned out to be almost exactly Captain's age. We got him home with a minimum of any further fuss (except for one scratch when we got him back in the carrier)...and then the introductions were made. If there is anything that'll snap a cat out of a drug-induced stupor faster than having another cat introduced into the house, particularly one that's smaller but still, as of now, has his goodiepouch intact and is used to life on the street in Baltimore, I don't know what it might be...and that's not a fact that I thought I'd ever know experientially, really...
Comet inspected the place and within about two minutes discovered the joys of going "wheeeee!" by playing with one of those plastic peel-off ties from the cap of a plastic milk jug, while Captain stood by with a fascinated look on his now-no-longer-woozy face, thinking, "Hey, wait...that's my gig." What followed was a lot of grrrr'ing and hissing and meowing and swatting and pouncing and chase-me games, interspersed with some aggressively friendly behavior on the part of both cats to the humans in the house, one because it was so very grateful to have a home, and the other because it was insecure and needed a bit of a cuddle.
Yes, we'll try to get some pictures.