January 31st, 2009 by Chris Eng

I kind of figured that after Sokka ate his mousie and barfed it out of his system, he’d work through it and bounce back to normal like cats usually do.

I was wrong.

He kept throwing up into the next day; he had no interest in his food and he was barely moving around. There was nothing to do but take him to the vet.

Now, we’re not at the bottom echelons of poverty, but I don’t think that Carla and I will ever be mistaken for “middle class.” As a result, having to take the cat to the vet was a big deal financially—not for the examination or the various tests he’d have to undergo, but because (God forbid) if he needed surgery we were up shit creek. So, we left him at the clinic with no small degree of trepidation and tried to get on with our lives.

Long story short, he seems to be okay. The x-rays picked up something in his stomach, but it could have been a number of things. They had him on a fluid drip to rehydrate him and he came home with me yesterday (a day after he went in), cranky but otherwise well-disposed. I fed him a small portion of food a few hours ago—the first time he’s eaten solid food in two days—and it’s stayed down so far (fingers crossed); if it stays down, I’ll work him back up to full portions over the next day or so.

Things I’ve learned from all of this:

1) Pet insurance is more than a pretty good idea; for us, it’s essential. I’m going to be looking into various plans next week. (If anyone has advice or suggestions, I’m all ears.)
2) I still need to work on my organizational skills. I’ve been much better about keeping everything in order lately, but it fell apart again over the last few days. I know it’s been a bad couple of weeks in general, what with my grandfather dying and then this—hell, even my tattoo appointment threw things a little out of whack—and I’m probably being too hard on myself, but I can’t help thinking that I’m setting myself up for a lot more responsibility in the future and I’m going to need to keep a handle on things so when my life is strewn with cowpats from the devil’s own Satanic herd right when the crops need to be brought in I’ll be able to navigate through it more smoothly.
3) My finances are much more delicate than I had previously realised. I’m not sure there’s much I can do about that in the short term, but having to pull $600 out of my ass at a moment’s notice has certainly made me aware of it.
4) Kittens are trouble. Damn them for being so cute.