Here I am, sitting in the window of our flat, and Uncle Kevin says this picture makes me look like a monkey, but I keep telling him that I’m a kitty, not a monkey! But he thinks I’m adorable, which makes me happy.
It’s been exactly two weeks now since my big brother Gerald passed away, so today Daddy took me to the kitty doctor to check on my general state of health, and I freaked out when he took out the carrier cage because I remember the last time Gerald left the house in his carrier cage and he never came back, so I did NOT want to go into my carrier cage, so Daddy practically had to push me into it, and so I meowed and meowed and meowed and meowed in the hopes that someone would let me out, but then Daddy carried me to the vet and once I was there I did NOT want to be let out. And while I was waiting at the vet, Kofi, the resident kitty cat, came over to sniff me and tell me that everything would be OK, but I wasn’t interested in listening; and a blonde Labrador retriever came out of the examination room, and even though he was very well behaved, I thought to myself, “oh no, not another dog!” and I did NOT want to be let out of my cage. Then finally we went into the examination room, and the kitty doctor pulled me out of my cage, and Daddy helped hold me while the doctor shaved the base of my tail AGAIN to take my blood pressure, and here I had spent all those weeks growing my fur back to hide my “shame,” and now he went and shaved it again! And my blood pressure was quite elevated when he measured it, and wouldn’t yours be if you went through everything I was going through? And then the doctor lifted me to listen to my heartbeat, and I wiggled and tried to say “Let me down!” but I was too nervous to meow. And then he turned the lights off and shined a thing in my eyes to see if the backs of my eyes indicated anything about high blood pressure, and luckily my eyes didn’t look bad, but it wasn’t over yet, since next he looked at my teeth (or what’s left of them, and I started thinking, no, don’t take any more out!), and then he noticed my ears where I’ve been scratching myself a lot lately, like this:
and the kitty doctor saw that I’ve scratched my left ear so much that I got a secondary infection, and he also noticed wax in my ears, so he put a yucchy liquid in my ears, and I HATE having liquid in my ears, so I shook my head and knocked the bottle of liquid off the table, and then I shook my head again when I knew that he was standing right over me, so I aimed that awful liquid right into his eye (serves the doctor right for doing all this stuff to me)! And then he took a needle and gave me a shot of an anti-inflammatory, so I wouldn’t feel like scratching myself more, and I wanted to say, “Are we DONE yet?”, but he wasn’t, because he stuck another needle in my bladder to take a urine sample, and then FINALLY he let me go and I ran into my carrier cage. But the doctor said that my urine was more “diluted” than it was a couple months ago, which might indicate a kidney problem, so he told Daddy to put me on a kidney food diet, and also to give me antibiotics for the next ten days for the infection around my ears. And he said he’d send my urine to the lab for another test, but I wasn’t listening at this point, I just wanted Daddy to take me home! So at long last Daddy took me home and gave me some of the new kidney diet kibble, and I love it! It tastes so great that I scarfed it down, like this:
and I even used my paw to grab the kibble and move it closer to me in my dish! And the antibiotic pills were tasty too, so even though having yucchy stuff in my ears was just awful, at least I got some tasty kibble out of it!
Uncle Kevin sat with me all afternoon while Daddy was at work, and then later they both went to the Emergency Vet Clinic at the airport for one last time, to pick up Gerald’s ashes, since Daddy had hired the Australian Pet Cremation & Burial Service people to cremate Gerald, and they delivered his ashes in a little wooden urn to the clinic where the nurses still had Gerald’s cage and blanket. And Daddy and Uncle Kevin were a little weepy when they brought the ashes home, but then they found a nice place on the shelf for the urn, after they let me approve of it:
Then this evening my doggy friend Asta dropped by with her Mommy Louise, and I’ve seen Asta lots of times, so I just sat down on the floor and stretched out and let Louise tickle my belly, then I walked over to my kibble dish and ignored Asta. Gerald was the one who used to run around with Asta whenever she would visit; but for me, when it comes to dogs, I show my affection for them by ignoring them.
Then I decided to take my evening nap, and where better than some nice clean sweaters?
Uncle Kevin had washed and packed up all his sweaters so that he could store them in the closet during the hot summer, but I said “No, not until I bless them!” and so that’s what I’m doing, since no sweater will store well unless it has come black kitty fur mixed in. That’s another lesson I learned from Gerald, since almost every article of clothing that Daddy owns has some Gerald fur on it!
I miss having Gerald around to share the simple kitty things, like sitting in laundry together, or looking out the window together, or competing for the Kevin Pillow; and as the days turn into weeks and will soon turn into months, I have lots and lots of fun memories to make me feel like Gerald is still close to me. But every time Uncle Kevin or Daddy walks by my kitty tree, I coo at him to remind him that I’m still here to give kitty love, and Gerald would be very happy to know that we’re going on as a happy family.
OSCAR
Hello all, this is how I spent my Christmas holiday:
Doesn't that look fun? Good, 'cause it was! I have so many fond memories of Christmases in America at Popo and Gung-Gung's house, because there was always a Christmas tree and lots of present to roll around in, and lots of ribbon to play with, so here's a picture of how I liked to peek up under the tree when Popo lived in Toledo, Ohio:
And here's Gerald playing with Popo and some ribbon when she lived in Harbor Springs, Michigan:
I find myself missing my brother Gerald an awful lot at holiday times like these, because he and I would have special romps around the tree, and we'd bat at the ornaments together, and we always got presents like new toys. But holidays are times to be happy, not sad, so I'm going to enjoy remembering Gerald when he was at his happiest, and for me that will be the best Christmas present ever.
