Suzy Says

Yesterday, I took Henry to the vet.

Partly a fact-finding mission, partly because Henry has been having…issues. He often rents his food very briefly, to the detriment of the living room carpet (why do cats always vomit on carpets instead of the much more easily cleaned wood floors?), and as for the bedroom carpet, well, let’s just say he frequently mistakes it for a litter box. Needless to say, the carpet is a very light beige and shows every spot and stain.

I tried moving all the food bowls up there, on the theory that cats don’t poop where they eat, but apparently this theory is incorrect, or Henry never heard of it. I then moved the bowls back to their original location and borrowed an extra litter box from my sister (there is also a litter box in the cold storage section of the house) and put that in the bedroom. This met with slightly more success, though sometimes Henry decided to treat the carpet and the litter box with equality.

I’m not sure if it’s the stress of moving, or living with two other cats, or an attempt to alert me to a health issue, but what with that and knowing nothing about Henry’s shady past, I made an appointment with Dr. Karen, who has served my brother and sister well for many years.

Henry was much less enthusiastic about the carrier than he was when we moved. There was hissing and clawing madly at the bars and growling in an “Exorcist” type manner. It was kind of unnerving. I feared for the vet’s safety. So did she, because she unscrewed the carrier top and lifted it off so she wouldn’t have to reach in. Henry was a puffball of rage as the assistant covered most of him with a towel and the shots were administered (rabies and FVRCP). Dr. Karen was barely able to get a peek at Henry’s derrière, but the peek revealed that he is in fact a girl (big surprise) and also old.

Henry weighs all of four and a half pounds!

In order to examine Henry properly and take blood to find out if her near-weightlessness is caused by thyroid issues or something like that, she will have to be sedated and then kept at the vet’s for half a day to make sure she recovers properly. Yesterday’s escapade, including topical wormer*, cost $138, and next week’s estimate is in the neighborhood of $265. You’d think I was living on Park Avenue instead of Hooterville.

Henry: the world’s most expensive stray cat.

I figure I’ll just keep calling her Henry. I’ve been calling her that for almost two years, so it’s kind of late to change it now. I can tell the curious that it’s short for Henrietta, and anyway, she’s clearly a tomboy (if not an actual tom).

I thought she’d hate me for the Great Vet Adventure, but when we got home yesterday, she came and sat on my lap as usual. How’s that for forgiveness?

*Henry is so light that the vet called the medicine’s manufacturer to find out the correct dosage. It was about a third of the whole dose. Dr. Karen put it in a syringe for me and I applied it while Henry sat on my lap last night. I don’t think she noticed.