Yep, I know. Not a travel story, nor travel photos. But I think this was funny enough to share. Funny now, that is. Not so funny when it happened (Friday).
I have two kitties named Cecily and Ophelia. They are sisters and I got them as "rescue cats"; someone had left them as wee babies in a box at a veterinary hospital. Very sweet girls, I love them to bits.
Above: bravely looking to see what is outside. They are indoor cats only.
A few years ago, I discovered that Ophelia had CRF (Chronic Renal Failure). She has been on a special diet and special meds since that discovery. Six months after that, we discovered that she also had HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). She is now on heart meds. Young kitty - 7 years old only. Both diseases are incurable but if you are lucky they are manageable. This will shorten her life, but she is stable and comfortable and has already outlasted what is expected of this combination.
Miss Ophelia, ready for her closeup.
Very recently we found that her blood pressure was rising, which is a side effect of the kidney issues.
I can't begin to tell you the experiments with the RXs and the number of vet visits. She even has a cardiologist!
One med tried for a while. Too much, BP too low. Tried another. Another vet visit with BP check. THROUGH THE ROOF high. Ouch! I decided to have a home vet visit because it has to be less stressful than collecting her to go to the vet, right? I wanted a true and correct blood pressure reading, as we felt the vet visit was enough to cause stress and artificially raise her pressure. This sentence is key to the story.
Well.
The home vet and I plotted carefully what to do. I should mention here that this kitty is *very* gentle and friendly but painfully shy. Were she a person, you'd think of her as a Victorian grand dame. High maintenance and prone to fainting fits (OK, OK, not fainting, but under stress she will hide and won't come out). She has an uncanny sense when something is different and if it's time to go to the vet just one look in her direction and it's under the bed.
Da girls.
The plan was for me to arrive at home ten minutes before the vet, pretend that "nothing was going on" and once I picked her up I'd put her in my office. I'd let the vet in the house and Ophelia would be in my office with nowhere to run and hide.
Well.
It was all going perfectly. I got home from work, did my usual puttering around, kitties followed me. I casually reached down to pick her up and carried her into my office and closed the door. She was on alert because the door was closed but sat on my lap purring and preening. I saw the vet arrive and park and I got up to exit my office. Ophelia clearly wanted to follow me but I made it out without her.
I let the vet into the house.
I walked upstairs, vet following me (in retrospect I should have asked for her to remain out of sight until I got into the office myself). I opened the door. A moment of hesitation and I think my cat saw the vet. Were it not for that I think I would have been OK.
My cat shot between my legs like a greased eel, and made a beeline for the bedroom adjacent where she likes to hide under the bed. OH NO OH NO! I followed her. She ran all the way under the bed and into the hall. The vet was still standing there blocking the stairs. She ran back into the bedroom, wide-eyed and panicked. I was there. She ran back into the hallway and SAILED through the banister and landed on the stairwell. This was easily a 5 foot jump. Easily. She landed and didn't slow down. She raced through the house and finally his under the couch. Oh No!
Before following her downstairs I had the presence of mind to close both bedroom doors but I left the office door open. We both tried to coax her out, the vet on one side, me on the other. She ran into the kitchen. Then she ran upstairs. I expected this and was very glad the only open door was the office. Her sister had followed her up the stairs, also very confused. It was mayhem. Ophelia ran into the office and under my desk, her sister in hot pursuit but at the last minute Cecily turned around and left the office. I went in and closed the office door behind me. MY blood pressure was probably sky high as well!
I finally coaxed her out from under the desk and held her in my lap. I calmed her down a little and then called the vet to come in. As soon as she did, Ophelia started wriggling, her eyes bugging out. Nonetheless the door was closed, les jeux sont faits!
I let her down and she made a beeline for the desk. I didn't know a cat could become one with a computer tower.
Ophelia on my deck.
If you are wondering about her blood pressure, you are on the right track. After extracting her from the wedge between the wall and the tower, we were able to take her BP. The funny thing is, after all of that, once we got her out and she realized she was not going to be Kitty a l'orange or Kung Pao Kitty or anything, she calmed right down. No fighting the cuff, nothing. She was quite still and in fact I merely petted her as we did this, no holding. We took 6 readings, each one slightly lower. Her heart rate was in the normal range as well.
CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!
The funniest comment came from the vet. She said when Ophelia jumped from the hallway, through the banister, to the stairs below, it was "graceful and perfectly executed".
Ophelia NOT under stress.
