Today's Special: Along Came Polly

This blog post begs a certain question. Whose blog is this? Last time I checked, it was mine. Herbie. Me. But yet here I am again, taking up my time to write something about one of my sibs.  It wouldn't be so bad if I just had one or two sibs, but with eight...this could go on forever!  Forgive me for what some may think are just my paranoid delusions, but I feel there may be a conspiracy involved. And I'm going to point my paw at the usual suspect. I'm not going to mention any names here but...he has three legs.  You get me right?  It's just a little suspicious that ever since "suspect" has taken up residence here, "suspect" has been the topic of two blogs and now another sib, Polly (who could easily be in cahoots with "suspect") gets to be featured in a blog...

Cue flashback music:

Polly is the oldest of the 9 of us.  She was born in Feb 1999 and came to peeps in May of 1999 at 12 weeks of age.  She's pure Turkish Van (and a DIVA - wait - who said that?).  As a general rule, peeps don't normally adopt pure breed cats. Nothing against them or people who adopt them, but peeps just prefer to adopt cats from shelters. But...many years ago, peeps had a very good friend who was a breeder of Turkish Vans so...along came Polly.

Yesterday peeps noticed that Polly didn't seem to be feeling like herself...again.  A few weeks ago she'd been feeling under the weather too. The vet decided it was a virus that simply needed to work itself out.  Sure enough, a few days later, Polly was back to her old (Diva) self.  But yesterday Polly was once again showing similar symptoms, so peeps called the vet this morning and took Polly in for a check-up and some fluids.  Peeps try to act quickly because Polly loves to get sick on the weekends. I think she does it b/c she's jealous that I got to go to the "special vet" when I had my "boarding incident" back in June.

You see, we're very lucky that we have a very special veterinary clinic just down the road from us.  They work in conjunction with various regular vet clinics throughout the country.  People come from all over to have their pet taken care of  at this "special vet."  You can only go there if your regular vet refers you or in cases of emergency...like when I was so sick back in June or when peeps had a cat treated for cancer many years ago.  They're open 24 hours and they do just about everything there (emergency medicine, surgery, cancer treatment etc) and they do it extremely well. It's an amazing place! But...they have a very simple fee structure that frightens peeps. This is how peeps explained it to me: when you walk in the door, that's $1000. After that, just figure on an additional $1000 per day.MOL  So when peeps see any of us getting sick near a weekend, they quickly call our regular vet and try to get us taken care of so that we don't have to visit the "special vet" on Saturday night or Sunday when our regular vet is closed.  Now don't get me wrong, peeps will do anything they have to do for us to be happy and healthy, but they'd rather avoid the "special vet" when we really only need to see the regular vet.

So back to the diva...I mean Polly...she's hilarious in her own way. Her bark is much worse then her bite.  She loves to growl and hiss at just about everything, but it's all just for show. Underneath it, she's a very sweet cat who loves to snuggle and be held.  One thing I've always really admired about Polly (aside from her color and markings) is her ability to open just about any door or drawer in the house. This has often proved quite valuable for me if peeps happen to be hiding treats or food behind said door or drawer.  Mind you, I thought her talents were limited to the house, but after seeing the video my peeps showed me, obviously her talents are far reaching!  Thankfully peeps were able to extract her from the drawer (three times!) and the vet was able to take a look at her. Seems that Polly is indeed dealing with the virus yet again.  According to the vet, many cats have been coming in with similar symptoms recently.  Polly was given some fluids and is now happily resting in a cabinet upstairs.  Vet will check in on Monday and if Polly is still feeling bad, then we'll go from there.  Hopefully she'll be back to herself before we know it!

Until next time...
xoxo

Today's Special: Ground Control to Major Tim

I'm not sure how I feel about this. This is the second time my bro Tiny Tim has featured prominently on MY blog. Is this simply because I'm a kind and generous kitty? Well, of course I am, but ultimately it's because that Tiny Tim keeps doing things to get attention.  And so the saga begins...

Today was Tim's very first vet visit in our hometown. He had all his tests, operations and vaccinations done down in Alabama before he came to us. And yes, yes, everyone at the vet office fawned over him. "Oh he's so cute." "Oh he has 3 legs." "Oh his name is Tiny Tim." Blah, blah, blah.*yawn* Anyway, I digress. Today he needed to go to the vet because his leg "nubbin" (as you can see I'm well versed in medical terminology) had a big scab on it and was a little bloody. Peeps were worried that maybe he had an infection and they believe it's better to be safe then sorry.  Thankfully, to make a long story short, Tim is totally fine. The vet believes that Tim is most likely licking his "nubbin" and causing all the trouble.  See what I mean about him always doing things for attention?  So...and this is the very best part...Tim has to wear one of those collars so that he leaves his "nubbin" alone. But I'm jumping ahead of myself by mentioning the collar. I'm just so darn excited about it! But, anyway,  if the "nubbin" still doesn't heal with Tim's tongue out of the picture, then an x-ray will be necessary to make sure the bone is smooth at the amputation site. He's got some antibiotics to take b/c it is a little bit infected and peeps have to put some cream on it to help it heal. I think that's all the boring stuff. Now on to the collar...

Are you in there little spaceman?

So after the vet, Tim came home. And let me tell you...I didn't know what was going on when I first saw him.  "Ground control to Major Tim. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on" (obviously David Bowie had met a cat similar to Tim back in the 70s with the name Tom) is all that came to my mind . I can't say for sure if Tim took his protein pills, but he definitely put his helmet on!!  Haha!  I simply couldn't stop staring at him. I didn't growl. I didn't hiss. I didn't meow. I just sat down and stared. My gosh he looked funny! I'm fairly sure he wasn't, and isn't, very happy with his current situation either.  I feel like I've hit the jackpot. When I woke up this morning I had no idea this day would turn out to be so hilarious. I mean, have you really looked at him? Even he can't believe his fate.

Ultimately, poor little Tiny Tim has to get used to his new space helmet because he's going to be wearing the fashionable headgear for a couple weeks (the lengths he goes to for Halloween are ridiculous!) to give his "nubbin" time to heal. I don't think he'll be able to hang on me during this time. Maybe he won't even be able to bite my tail. One can hope, one can dream. For now though, his excursion to the vet and his funny hat have worn him out. So he and I both bid you adieu until next time...

xoxo