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Humbling Experience
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25 April 2008
16:03:00 o'clock BST

Humbling Experience

In the states, there is a saying of getting "smacked up side your head", meaning that you get a lesson in life in a rather direct and rude way.  In my last entry, I profanely yelled at Willow for yet again getting into my seedlings and wreaking havoc.  Well, the saga continues . . . .

I went directly downstairs after finishing my blog entry and started making our tea.  She sat across the kitchen with her back to me and her ears back.  Humpy little madam!  So I continued on chastising her grumbly under my breath.  Evening came, dishes cleaned up after tea, and she still sat there . . . pouting.  Or so I thought.  Finally she crawled into her little hammock on the radiator and slept.  The next morning we got up to get ready for work, and she was still sullen and quiet.  No amount of fuss or affection could get her to respond with a meow.  I thought she was really in a right strop.  When we came home that evening, she didn't come downstairs to greet us and in fact wouldn't even come to eat.  I noticed that her little nose was dry and she was very warm.  No meows, no stories, and that squinty huddled behavior continued. 

The next morning I went to clean her sand tray (sorry for this, folks) and found gushes of blood in diarrahea.  She was so weak that she couldn't even make it up the steps to her favourite spot to sleep while we were at work.  Panic, panic!! 

An emergency vet visit confirmed that she had a large bowel infection.  Two shots later and two prescriptions to go, and we tootled off home with one very disgruntled cat.  The first few days, she was so weak that we didn't have any trouble getting the pill down her gullet and squirting the pro-active tummy booster into her mouth. 

Yesterday she started to talk again and even stretched out as far as she could on our rug in front of the fireplace.  Her nose was nice a juicy and she was screaming for her tea.  This morning she hid when it came time for her medicine.  Okay, she's better.  No doubt about it.  The vet thinks that she just can't handle change in her diet.  I had recently switched her kibble and had mixed it with the old half and half.  It just was too harsh for her anyways - we think.  Who knows?

All I know is that the guilt of fussing because she had been naughty seems awful now.  Nothing like a good scare to sort out how important a pet is in your life!  I called the states yesterday trying to sort out a retirement payment and she meowed into the phone too the whole time getting in her two cents worth too.  I never even flinched.  Before I would have been "Shhhhing" her the whole time.  This is one of her favourite games. . . talking on the phone too.  It is right up there with the habit of talking everytime one of us says something in a conversation.  E and I seldom have a conversation without Willow discussing everything too.  I swear she can say "No!!". 

I just got back from the visiting the nurse with a foot infection.  I came limping home with a prescription in my hot little hand.  Imagine my astonishment when it was the exact same anitbiotic that Willow is taking!  So Willow and I will gag down pills together.  Bless.  Life's too short to fuss over minor things.  I think I'll just enjoy this little piece of skin and bones and china blue eyes and accept her on her own terms.  E and I are her whole world.  She deserves to live in it securely and happily. 



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