Gimpy Kitty

My wife & I spent our Sunday morning at the emergency animal clinic. It seems that one of our 16-year-old kitties thinks that she's, well, not 16 years old. Little Ophelia tried to jump one the baby gates we use to contain the dog and came up hobbling. When she wouldn't come downstairs for her canned food, I knew something was wrong.

After the brief deliberation of "Is it broken?" "Is it dislocated?" "Is it fractured?" or "Is it just a pulled muscle?", we figured that we'd be horrible parents if we didn't have her looked at NOW. So I had to take the injured cat, wrestle her into the cat carrier that she hates, and put her into the car that she really hates and begin the 30-minute drive to Lewiston (with kitty howling all the way).

Fortunately, the wait wasn't too long, and the staff was excellent. They gave her a shot for the pain and to calm her down for x-rays. All in all, after 4 hours and $186.00, it was a soft tissue injury, and they couldn't give her any more pain medication because of her age and her kidneys.

We are thankful that Ohpelia will be okay, and we consider ourselves a little more prepared to enter the realm of parenthood.