Why is it when you think you're plate is so over filled, stacked high and threatening to overflow that somehow another scoop of crap is added to the top? Stressful life events seem to get all stacked together and truly test how much you can handle.
All the house stuff, while busy, stressful, frustrating and taking up every spare moment of our lives, was a lot. We've been trying to be diligent in tasks and doing whatever we can to make the transition easier. For example, we had already purchased a new couch, treadmill and washer\dryer for the new house and scheduled delivery as well as put in our change of address with the post office. Of course, we had to go and change all that this week, essentially doing all the work twice. Yay, I love wasted time.
Another thing we wanted to do to ease into our new neighborhood was to get the cats' annual exams, due at the end of October, done before we moved to buy us some time in finding a new vet. Taking the animals to the vet is really low on my "want to do" list so Michael has always had this lovely responsibility. Last year, Dylan accompanied the crew and it was a disaster! Oliver goes crazy, which upset Dylan and Mike was trying to calm a 1 year old and essentially having to ignore the cat that seriously needed attention. It was not a good scene. So, this year, we thought we'd see if Dylan could be removed from the chaotic situation.
As our luck would have it, our two wonderful neighborhood friends we can usually call on in a pinch were unavailable to take Dylan. Mike decided to bite the bullet, as opposed to reschedule, and take Dylan in with the two cats. Literally, more than two handfuls.
Yesterday morning, the cats were loaded into carriers, Dylan was dressed with shoes on ready to go and Mike headed out to start the car to head to the vet. His battery was absolutely dead! No neighbors were around to help him jump his car (I had already left for work). Being the adventurous and resourceful guy he is, he plopped Dylan in the stroller, put Luci's carrier in the storage compartment underneath and balanced Oliver on top of the sun shade\handle of the stroller. I only wish he had been able to get a picture of that because I'm sure it was quite a sight to behold!
Being the practical people we are and having cats that aren't great travelers, we go to a vet only 3 blocks from the house. Good thing, otherwise that stroller solution wouldn't have worked so "easy." Apparently, Dylan being a sweet boy and a parrot to boot, repeated his Daddy's "It's ok Luci" and "It's ok Oliver" to the unhappy cats en route. What a good guy!
Unfortunately, the morning drama caused Mike to be 5 minutes late for "crazy" Oliver's appointment and they took the next appointment that had already arrived which meant the boys had to wait. Yeah, not good for scared kitties.
Upon entering the exam room, Oliver upped his protest to make sure everyone knew he was not happy about being there. Dylan was semi-watching Bugs Life on our iPad and trying to take in the odd surroundings of a vet's exam room. Luci was huddled on the floor in her carrier with the top open trying not to move too much. Dylan would frequently go over, sit on the floor, and try and make sure she was ok.
As soon as the Doctor entered the room, Oliver greeted her with a loud cry and a hiss. As the doctor and Mike spoke for a few minutes about Oliver and how he was doing his protests grew louder. The doctor called for some backup to restrain Oliver during the exam and off they went. Screaming, hissing, crying at the volume of an opera singer he went through his exam. Dylan looked at Mike several times and Mike had to reassure him that Oliver was fine, he just didn't want the doctors touching him. Mike promised they were not hurting him and that he would be ok. A sad 2 year old looked up at him with a slightly extended bottom lip and watery eyes. After saying it's ok he then put his hands over his face. He loves his cats and doesn't want them to be unhappy.
After Oliver's exam he was placed back in his carrier and left to be grumpy in the corner. Luci is the exact opposite of Oliver. Mike picked her up out of her carrier, gave her to the vet and she just sat on the table quietly while the doc did her exam. She didn't move or make a peep the whole time. She was terrified, but held it together well!
After all that drama and the vet not being too concerned about Oliver's weight loss, we just had to wait on the blood test to come back this morning to confirm all was good with our furry baby. The vet called this morning with the results. Here's where you insert the big ol' game show "WAH WAH!" Oliver does have a problem. My poor little 15 year old insulin dependent cat now also has a hyper thyroid. Yuck!
After the vet gave us the options (including a now mostly defunct surgical procedure to remove the thyroid and some crazy process where they cure him by giving him radioactive iodine and then cage him for 3-5 days to keep his radioactive urine away from the outside world while charging you a month's mortgage payment or more), we settled on the "easy" twice a day pill pop. While Oliver doesn't love getting a pill (literally) shoved down his throat, he (and we) are already accustomed to a twice daily medication schedule so we figured what's one more to give?
We'll start him on the medication tonight and then need to call the new vet by our soon to be new house to make an appointment in 3-4 weeks to do a blood test and see how we might need to adjust the dosage.
So, there's today's new brick to add to our loads. Anyone else have bad\stressful news they want to give to us? I mean, we don't have much going on so we can handle it. Har har.
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