“I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. To stand for something, and to have made some difference that you lived at all.” ~ Leo Rosten
I’m running about six weeks behind on everything including taking the pets for their annual vaccines. It was not a good day for them, and it would have been awful(er) for me if Stacy hadn’t gone along to help. Let me just say that taking all three pets at once was not one of my better ideas (note to self: don’t do it again). I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned that Lilly (the black cat) has trouble riding in a car: Anxiety like you wouldn’t believe and I’ll just leave it at that. On Friday, I stopped in at Aunt Millie’s for some Kitty-Kalm-Down drugs. Next time, I’m going to double the dose because the prescribed amount did little more than lessen the yowling from the back seat. Poor thing is just a wreck on vet day. Meanwhile, Wally, who has exhibited zero distress other than gaining weight because dad doesn’t understand that table food is really bad for him (that’s a whole other issue that was addressed today), has an abscessed tooth. He came home with antibiotics until the tooth can be removed because that bit of unfortunate news was hardly the worst part of the visit. Oh yes, it got worse. Poor Leo, the kitty in the carrier on the floor; my beautiful, affectionate, sweet-as-can-be orange tabby boy, has a tumor in his eyeball. Over the last few months I’ve noticed his pupil was a different size from the other eye, and the iris was changing color. What I couldn’t see, until Aunt Millie showed me today, was that the color was actually a three-dimensional tumor rising from his iris. If it wasn’t so awful it would have been totally fascinating. (You can thank me for not taking a picture of it.) So, on February 22, my beautiful green-eyed boy will lose his eye. This will be the second orange tabby I’ve had that has had only one eye – one-eyed Jack being the first. As I learned today, this is not uncommon among orange tabbies. In fact, they’re quite prone to cancer, and eye cancer is not at all rare for them. Who knew! After we get him patched up, we’ll get Wally’s tooth pulled unless the antibiotics don’t help, then we might have to address it sooner. Lord help me if I have to take them both in for surgery on the same day. All things considered, Lilly wasn’t that bad. This is the price one pays for unconditional love. I’m glad I’m able to provide for them, because it’s the least I can do for all the love they give me.
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