Thursday, December 22, 2005

Mr Cat update


So I phoned the vet to see if Mr Cat was ready, and they said he was.

Shit.

So I went over at 10:45 pm, to collect him and dump him out in the parking lot.  

Ok, not really.  

I went over to see if I could get *any* tame behaviour out of him.  *Anything*.  If I could, I was going to take him home and figure out what to do later.  

I just love that word.

I even brought Mr Cat the Pet Gold brand of sardine, lobster, and whatever else (green label, tiny can) that Squooshable loves SO MUCH from PetCo.  If you have a cat, check it out—it has huge hunks of fish and lobster, looks and smells disgusting, and cats love it.  Especially Squooshable; it really thrills him, and I can’t give it to him all of the time because it isn’t kitten food, and he needs the extra nutrition for a little bit longer.  

Butsoanyway.

The plan was to feed SquooshDaddy food that Squoosh loves, see if he would soften up towards me even a tiny bit, and if not, take him to the parking lot where he will be happier.  Per Chrissy.  And it has gotten fairly cold tonight, so I did not want to let him out.

When I got there, poor Mr Cat was being terrorised by a yipping Chihuahua boarded next to him; every time this dog yipped, Mr Cat would jump.  And there was blood on the bottom of the kennel.  Not a lot, but enough that I told the vet that the prospect of putting him off in a parking lot—especially if he’s sick or hurt—didn’t appeal to me; I’m just not made of the stuff it takes to do that sort of thing.  Chrissy’s vet hadn’t noticed the blood (Mr Cat had been sitting right over it), said to leave him there tonight and they will move him away from the Chihuahua, and tomorrow find out what’s causing him to bleed.  So we gave him a little dry food and water (I left the Science Diet kitten food and Pet Gold Squoosh chow for tomorrow) in case he has to go under anaesthesia again, and they covered his cage with a sheet and put a towel under him ‘cos Dr Vet said that would calm him down.  I personally think just being away from the Chihuahua will calm him down, but ok.  

So I headed back home, and stopped to get a cocoa.  The 7-11 on the way home has both Ghirardelli cocoa and Hershey’s hot chocolate, and I needed one.  I decided on cocoa ‘cos I have been going heavy on the hot chocolate lately.  :-)  

Well, for medicinal purposes.  

So they were out of cocoa—the spigot was spitting out chalky water—so I dumped that out and went back to hot chocolate.  As I paid, I mentioned to the 7-11 guy that they were out of cocoa, so that he could replace it, or whatever.  He looked at me as if I were from Mars, and pointed out that I *had* hot chocolate.  Right, I said; but the cocoa is out.  There’s two, he pointed out, referring to the spigot for cocoa and the spigot for hot chocolate; just use the other one.  

Ok…we’re not communicating.  

I edumacated him on the difference between cocoa and hot chocolate, and the person working with him did not get it, either.  I think they thought I was making it up.  Good lord.  I *am* on another planet.  

And I forgot to mention the brief flash of home-ness I felt at the boys in the parking lot.  :-)  They were cute, though before I moved here, I would have thought they were idiots.  Funny how things change.  They were straight out of Trailer Park Boys—about twenty-two-ish, with an F150.  One of them had on a snow camo coat, and the other one wore a flannel shirt over a t-shirt and baseball cap; they were standing out in the parking lot by their truck drinking beer and scratching off lottery tickets.  Snow camo let out a WHOOP! as I came out, and when I looked over to see who had shot whom in a 7-11 parking lot hunting accident, he shouted out, “I JUST WON TWO DOLLARS!”  “So?” Flannel shirt asked.  “THAT MEANS I GOT MY MONEY BACK!” Snow camo yelled, deliriously happy.

Ok, so it made me homesick.  It doesn’t take much these days.

Oh…they had no guns, though.  

Maybe that was for the best.

2 comments:

Scott Johnson said...

There are a lot of really uneducated, low-functioning people in the world who have no idea what the difference is between hot chocolate and cocoa.

I'm one of them.

I'll look it up as soon as I'm done embarrassing myself here.

I sure hope Mr. Cat is okay. I hope he's reachable. I'm sure the good, stinky food will help! :)

Scott

ancodia said...

lol...np, especially when I mentioned it to my shoppping partner today, and they had no idea what I was talking about, either. This may be me seeing a difference where there is not one, making up my own rules, or something. Not that I ever do that, mind you. ;-) Kind of like that "capitol/capital" confusion I had experienced a little bit back. :-)

I should look it up, but as I understand it, cocoa is kind of like "lite" hot chocolate. If I took a chocolate bar and stuck it into a cup of milk and put both into the microwave, I would end up with hot chocolate. Providing I then turned the microwave on, that is. :-)

If I took the same chocolate bar and sucked out a goodly amount of the fat (and therefore, according to my taste, a goodly amount of the flavour), I would be left with a kind of a dry choco-taste; melting that in water, I now have cocoa.

And I won't take sides on whether one is made with water and the other with milk; to me, that is kind of a non-issue. Either could match with either, in my world. But hot chocolate is the thicker, richer, sweeter, more calorie-laden of the two. At least, again, in my world.

Though I reserve the right to be wholly wrong on anything and everything I have just said. Or said even before that. Or will say in the future. And so on. :-)