If only it were this easy . . .
Been trying to get Sunny to the vet’s for his annual check up and blood test, etc since about September. But with our new work schedules, my inability to lug around 7 kilos of lurve in a large plastic cage ( for fear of putting my back out) and the new pedestrian streets in the centre of Sevilla (making taxi access quite difficult) it’s been proving to be a bit of a challenge. Especially as Sunny’s blood test requires that he doesn’t eat from about 9pm until the test, which means getting to the vet’s first thing in the morning, which basically means this can only be done on a Saturday. Except Nog now has a new class on Saturday mornings and I seriously cannot carry the massive beast on my own, not even as far as the nearest taxi stand.
So we started looking at other options from the practical (buying a new ‘back friendly’ cat carrier) to the ridiculous (stuffing Sunny into our little old lady shopping trolley). No luck finding a cat carrier with shoulder straps that Sunny would fit into, and when I tried him out in the shopping trolley, wheeling him around the apartment, it turned out as expected – no way no day!
Then we got a message from Nog’s Saturday morning student saying there had been a sudden death in the family, so no class. And so, we’re off to the vet’s sometime just after 10 o’clock.
Going to bed without feeding the boys their evening meal hasn’t been too much of a problem so far, as we’ve been out for most of the evening. Now it’s just after midnight and Nog’s gone to bed leaving me with two very sad pointy-eared angels pathetically moaning here beside me as I type. And so I am also off to sleep … and really dreading the 7am wake-up call from los gatos. I think Nog & I are both going to have to feign sleep until at least 9.30 in order to keep our sanity – wish us luck!
casa azahar 
Eeek — best of luck. Let us know how it goes. I imagine Sunny poking you with a probing claw in the morning, as if to say:
Ahem. Really, now. Last night wasn’t a bit funny. It’s time for you to revive your servile ways.
We are not amused.
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Indeed, he’s been at it for the past hour or so. I’m in bed with the laptop and he is sitting next to me, poking at my shoulder with one paw and occasionally sighing heavily. He looks more confused than annoyed, poor darling. Brekky is his favourite time of day.
Nog is still asleep (wish I was) and Azar is in the livingroom, presumably sulking. Nobody sulks quite like Azar – he’s such a ham.
It’s about 8.45 now so just about an hour to go before getting dressed and out the door. I think as long as I stay put in bed Sunny and Azar won’t break into the ‘dawn chorus’.
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is sunny a burmese? he has pretty markings
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He’s part Siamese, part Burman (hence the white toes). Yep, he’s quite a handsome dude.
So, just got back. We probably won’t get the blood test results back until Monday or Tuesday, so fingers crossed that Sunny will get a clean bill of health and that’ll be it until next year’s check up. Taking cats to the vet’s is always so stressful.
He was good as gold while the blood was being drawn and his ears were being cleaned. The only problem was his tendency to purr when he’s upset or frightened, so the vet wasn’t able to listen to his heart or lungs.
It’s Azar’s turn next and he is a whole other bag of ferrets. Imagine trying to put the tazmanian devil into a cat cage … well, maybe next month.
*checks time*
*goes off to pour big glass of wine*
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Sunny has now had his breakfast(s), and is curled up on the sofa recovering from his ordeal. Think I might join him.
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Ha – that didn’t last long. Sunny, now fully recovered, has started demanding lunch. Instead I’ve offered him his second favourite pastime, which is sitting on his special stool with comfy cushion next to the Alpha Cat’s computer table, so I can reach down and cuddle him every few minutes and tell him what a beautiful boy he is … have I mentioned how much I love my cats?
The comfy stool also has to be used when I’m teaching at home or else Sunny won’t stop trying to climb onto my lap during a class. So I pull up the stool next to me, plunk him down on it, give him a cuddle and he happily hunkers down all purry and content. Even students who say they are afraid of cats don’t mind Sunny sitting there between us. He really is a lovely and lovable old thing.
Not sure if I’ve told this story on casa az before, but I once had a student who was so terrified of cats that she couldn’t bear even having them in the room during class. But of course Sunny couldn’t bear being shut out of the room. And three months later I took a photo of my student holding Sunny in her arms. Nice, eh?
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What’s it with cats and vets? We had a triple visit to the vet earlier this week, and getting the cats into the cages was… erm… not entirely easy…
I mean, when the cages are out at other occasions they sleep in them, sit on top of them etc.
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Somehow cats just know when something’s afoot….
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Yeah, like when I try cleaning Azar’s ears. He totally knows the difference between when I am approaching him to give him a cuddle as opposed to when I want to squirt liquid into his ears – how???
But Sunny never seems to clue in until I’ve stuck the nozzle into his ear. Duh.
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My Cinnamon has the same issue at the vet — a non-stop, room-vibrating purr. His vet turns on the tap in the room when he’s checking Cinnamon’s heart rate…Picks him up and moves him right over to the sink if he has to, as the sound of the water often makes the cats stop purring.
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Will definitely give that a try next time, Lori. Thanks for the tip.
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