the cat, the visit and some much needed down time

In addition to all the hustle and bustle that was already going on around here, we had a bit of trauma last Monday night with Pop's cat, Tom. First, a little background info: In a nut shell (so to speak), Tom is... 'special' -the last vet we took him to told us he thought Tom was psychotic (after said vet was forced to don elbow length leather gloves and a long handled net in order to capture Tom, who was in hyper freak-out mode, darting around an exam room that was roughly the size of a bedroom closet, hissing, growling and ready to eat the face off of anyone who got too close) anyhow, he's always been a bit neurotic, constantly licking and scratching himself (fleas and flea allergies have been ruled out) but Monday night we noticed that his scratching had gotten so severe, his head and shoulders were virtually one giant scab, he also had open sores that were bleeding -the poor dude was a mess.
Obviously Tom needed to go to the vet but considering that the last vet had said it "might be more humane to euthanize Tom than put him thru another visit to the vet", I was worried about trying to take him back there. I decided to stop by the vet's office the next morning and explain the situation and asked if they'd see him, the receptionist remembered Tom from the last visit (I'm telling you, it was AWFUL!) but said they had an extra doc on duty and they could see him that afternoon. The receptionist mentioned that they might need to tranquilize him and would that be okay?! Uhm... yes, by all means, and while you're at it how about a little sumpin'-sumpin' for me too?! Ugh, great -my aunt and uncle were coming that afternoon... and I need to pick Matt up from summer school... oh well, we'd make it work.
Came home to get ready to load up the psycho cat but could only find 1/2 of the cat carrier... wth!? I'm already a nervous wreck and now I have to figure out how I'm going to get our feline Cujo from point A to point B without being confined?! ...I don't think so. After a few frantic calls to my hubs, where I may have threatened to set his boat on fire, the rest of the carrier was found and Andrew was able to drop Tom into the carrier. Okay, the mere fact that Tom was able to be dropped into the carrier rather than stuffed, crammed or otherwise violently inserted was proof that he wasn't feeling well.
Arriving at the vet's office, I learned that the doc we'd be seeing was new there... in fact, it was her first day. I couldn't help thinking that after this experience, it might very well be her last day as well... I sincerely hoped that she wouldn't be traumatized forever. When she came into the exam room, I nervously explained Tom's history of going ape-shit once being released and I warned her that once the genie was out of the bottle, so to speak, it might not be so easy to put him back (without the help of a tranqilizer dart).
I have to hand it to this chick, she might have been a little leery at first but she was always in control. She opened that carrier and calmly grabbed Tom and then with the help of a tech she was able to take his temprature (which earned her some well deserved growls and hisses) then she looked at his teef and examined his owies... and then gave him a couple of shots -a steroid to stop the itching and an antibiotic to stop any infections and she applied a topical treatment for parasites. Amazingly, when it was all said and done, there was no bloodshed and she still had all ten fingers! Hmmm... can you guess who we're going to ask for should the need arise for another visit to the vet?! Doc Renner is my hero! :)

Whew! Tom was all fixed up and loaded back into the car, I remembered to gather up Matt from summer school and just as we were racing home, Andrew called to let me know that Aunt Ruby and Uncle Bob had arrived... the day hadn't gone as I'd planned but in the end it all worked out just fine, although I'm not sure Tom would agree.

I thoroughly enjoyed the time with my aunt and uncle -they were here Tuesday thru Friday and we had a nice, relaxing visit. We did some sightseeing in Ferndale and around old town Eureka and of course, lots of chatting and catching up. I hadn't seen them since my mom died last year... hard to believe it was a year July 5th... *sigh* Anyway, it was great to see them and I'm already looking forward to them coming back next summer -they're good peeps.

Jack took the kids up to the lake on Thursday for the long holiday weekend, and I was going to drive up late Friday or early Saturday but I was exhausted. I ended up staying home which gave me a couple of days to regroup and get things back to 'normal' around here. The peace and quiet was just what I needed. I read an awesome book (Driving Sideways by Jess Riley... omg, I laughed out loud so many times... LOVE her style!) and *insert happy dance here* I got to sleep in for the first time in a loooong time... and it was grrrreat! Pop and I went out to lunch on Saturday and spent part of the afternoon playing with his new power chair -now he's literally 'hell on wheels'! :) Today I dragged him with me to Costco just to get him out of the house for a bit -I'm so glad to have him here, we really do have fun together.

The family got home late this evening and it sounds like they had a great time too. Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone for some of us -back to work for Jack, summer school for Matt, which means I'll be draggin me arse out of bed early too... but it's all good! :) I'm happy to report that Tom is doing 100% better which has done wonders for his disposition -he really is a great kitty... as long as you don't piss him off!