Surgery Day (excerpt)

[The following is an excert of the log I kept keeping track of my cat's surgery, having saved the longer one onto my computer but not the flash drive. Suffice it to say he is okay two and a half days after, if a little shy of drinking his water. I wish I'd been a little more organised, and will add to this at a later date since the only access to the internet that I have is at the library. Thank you, unrecognised American Socialism.]

01_11_2011

Surgery day for Lego.

We get in the truck about twenty till nine. I’ve been warming it up beforehand. I put one of my trashed fleece pullovers in the bottom of his big litter carrier, and down we go with moderate yowling and quiet periods in between. Did not get real sleep. Would wake up and he’d be sitting up as if in some kind of meditation. Getting cleaned up he’d let me know his disapproval of the fast that’s been over twenty-four hours.

I get to the Vet’s office a little early. She’s not in yet, but her office lady and assistant are there. 23.3 lbs on the scale. He’s lost about 4 ounces of weight since last week subtracting the carrier, 16’bs., 12 ounces. They shave a patch on his foreleg so they can draw blood more easily. “Do you want to hold him while we wait for the numbers?”, I am asked. “Sure”, I say. He tucks his head under my arm in an attempt to hide or take cover. I pet the coat of his back and he seems to relax a little. He looks up at me. Meow.

The vet says, “They’re good!” in a rising tone. We’ll be able to help him with surgery today, though I’m only vaguely aware what that entails. I sign the release reassured that she has done this before. I don’t know what to do after we walk him into the next room, which is kept dark. I don’t know if I should stay. There’s a quess-timate about how many hours it will take for him to recover. They have other clients coming in too. I tell them I’ll stay in the area, which is home up the hill.

Photo courtesy of Vetrinarian Assistant, Julie Nash.

It’s snowing, has been since 8:30. First it was Grauppel, or very small corn-snow, then turning to dusty flakes. It’s going to be a cold day just making it into the Thirties. I could start a fire. I did set Whinnie up with a can of Friskies before leaving and set the water down where he could get at it. I have a can of Cream of Potato. I plan on making that with some turkey bacon rolled up in a warm corn tortilla. When I get home my coffee has cooled off. I missed it on the drive down like the brief kiss of a lover long missed. I set up to write. 10:36AM, bigger flakes coming down now. I’m supposed to get one or two inches. Whinnie settles down on my bed after not knowing how his day will go. He had lingered on the front window of the living room looking out, and then comes into the bedroom. There is comfort of the clock radio playing KRCC’s Free Form program. Perhaps it’s time to start a fire, something I haven’t done in a while. I do have to get rid of this desk that used to be in the old studio. Perhaps some tea to go with the sawing with the big worm drive saw.

[Also, I have after shots of Lego in the wing-back chair that cannot be uploaded until I get them converted from SD card to my flash drive.]