Peanut thinks the whole world should be us at 5 AM. Well, maybe not the whole world, but at least his mamma. I have no illusions that it is because he wants to spend a few quiet moments with me. I know all he wants is someone to feed him and I’m the only one sucker enough to bow to his wishes. Yesterday, when 5 AM came, he didn’t get up. Since he has me so programmed, my internal clock said “it’s coffee time”. Even when Gene got up at 6:30, Peanut still opted for the bed. That was when we noticed he really didn’t look too good.
He wouldn’t purr and seemed like he could barely hold his eyes open. We let him rest and went about our business. Our friends and fellow travelers, Tony and Diana, were due at our campground later in the day, so I put dinner in the crock pot and ran the vacuum. Gene went to the grocery for a couple items. All the while Peanut was content to sleep. He got up once to make a trip to the litter box, but that was the extent of his movement.
After lunch, we decided he must be a sick kitty. We searched the internet for symptoms of feline urinary tract infection, since that is a common ailment in male cats. He didn’t seem to exhibit any of those symptoms. I rubbed on his head a little and noticed his ears were very warm. Another internet search turned up a vet and off we went.
Now, Peanut is not fond of vets and he has a very long memory when it comes to bad things that have happened to him at the hands of a vet. The cat seemed at death’s door until we went into the examination room. He immediately went into attack mode and no one, not even me, could get near him. They finally had to catch him in some kind of net contraption and sedate him. He made noises we’ve never heard him make. It was awful to watch and I almost cried, but if I hadn’t been afraid he was going to die, I would have just brought him home.
After he was asleep, blood was drawn and x-rays were done. No evidence of anything that would make him feel so ill and have a temperature of 106. The only indication that something might be brewing was a slight elevation of his white blood count. Since he hadn’t eaten or drank any water all day, the vet was concerned that he might not eat or drink, so she injected some fluid under his skin to help stave off dehydration. She also gave him an antibiotic to combat the infection which might have caused he white blood count to be high. After a couple hours, we headed home with a very groggy cat and a bottle of antibiotic.
The sedative finally wore off enough for him to wobble, literally, to his food bowl in late evening. About 11 PM, he decided he’d had enough sleep for one day and got up. Gene and I, on the other hand, just had to crash. We both got up several times in the night to check on him. As far as I know, what time he didn’t spend turning over his water bowl, he just sat in the corner of the kitchen.
He’s not well, but he is greatly improved from yesterday. He moves around on his own and he’s back to purring when you pet him.
As for our friends, we had a great reunion. We haven’t seen them since Albuquerque, and it was great to spend the evening catching up. They did the honors of putting Washington on our map. They will be here a week, so we are looking forward to lots of laughs and together time.
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