Squeakie & Jungle Gym

We took Squeakie to the vet at noon, and was that ever fun. You have to understand, she’s been outside of our house only once before, way back when we took her in for shots when she was a kitten. She wasn’t about to get put into a cat carrier, not on her life or our lives. She a strong little lady also, and every time we got her close to the door to the carrier, all four legs would extend to make entry impossible, and all claws were out. I finally tipped the carrier onto one end and then we just sort of dropped her in. Not a happy camper or cat. We got her there, with her yowling all the way, then got her out and onto an examination table where a doctor’s aide weighed her and took her heart rate (about a thousand beats a minute) and rectal temperature (She didn’t much care for that either, and it was determined she was running a low fever.) The doctor came in and looked her over, then took her to another room to take a blood sample and give her a shot of some high-end antibiotic. The doctor also recommended they do a complete blood and urine exam to see if anything internal was causing the fever. We said, go ahead, anything for our little girl. Then we got the bill. Yowtch! More than we’d ever spent on any single trip to the doctor with one of our kids--$341.22. Double yowtch! But she’s our little girl and we paid it. Needless to say, we didn't bring her home in the cat carrier. She was purrfectly happy in a beach towel provided by the vets, all bundled up and in Rosalie's arms. So much for the cat carrier.

When we got home, FedEx had delivered a cat perch I’d ordered through EBay. How exciting. I opened the box, some fifteen separate pieces to put together with assorted bolts. And the directions were in a series of diagrams. But at least it wasn’t directions in Spanish or Chinese. I’ve never been very good at putting together furniture or children’s toys, and this time it was no different. I finally got it finished and Rosalie and I carried it out to the patio where it joined the other cat perch from a million years ago. Now, both cats have a veritable jungle gym of places to perch and scratch. Don't you wish you were that lucky?.