The doctor who has been treating Jake doesn't start his shift until 11:00am, but he dropped by earlier in the morning to make sure Jake was able to go home. And so... at 9:00am I headed to The Big City to pick up my cat.
I honestly don't know what it's been like for him at the hospital. My guess is that he's been trapped in a cage the entire time... poked and prodded... having to listen to barking dogs and other strange sounds... no doubt it's been a traumatic time. I feel awful about it, but there wasn't much choice.
Hopefully he'll be back to normal in short order.
Because his car ride home was anything but normal. He can still meow now, like his sister, which should make life a bit more interesting...
I started talking to Jake to comfort him, but that just seemed to wind him up worse than he already was, so I didn't talk much on the way home. I did poke a finger through the carrier to scratch his face, which he loves.
After 20 minutes of listening to one angry, confused, and scared kitty, my next hurdle was awaiting me. How would Jenny react to having her brother home?
Not so great, actually.
I was warned that the vet smell on Jake would freak her out, and it sure did. She spent most of her day stalking him... running up and smelling him... and hissing, hissing, and hissing at him if he tried to get too close...
Or for no reason at all...
Jake was upset that he couldn't be buddy-buddy with her right away, but he was still thrilled to be home.
As day turned to night, they seemed to be getting along better. They were hanging out in the catio together for nearly an hour...
After dinner Jenny's hissing was at minimum and they seemed like they might be getting back to normal quicker than I had hoped...
And now for the bad news...
First of all, I have to crush Jake's pills, mix with water, then draw into a syringe so I can hold him down and squirt it in his mouth. He takes it like a champ, but is understandably irritated. Fortunately I only have to do this four times.
And also? Jake has to be on a special diet with special food. Which means Jenny is also on a special diet since Jake eats her leftovers. The bright spot in all this is that they both love the special food. The bad news is that the special food is massively expensive. As in maybe I'm having to discontinue satellite television expensive. But the worst news? I have nearly $240 in cat food I just bought on sale that's now going to be feeding Fake Jake...
It's expensive, low-carb, quality food-stuff... which is good news for Fake Jake, I guess.
And then there's my share of the massive vet bill... nearly $600! But, hey, it would be over $2000 if I didn't have insurance, so I can't be too upset about that.
Not that the money matters. Can you really put a price tag on this?
Jake is so sweet... such a great cat. I would be completely crushed if anything were to happen to him.
Anybody need a slightly-used spleen?
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My male cat Leo lived at a dog kennel, in a relatively small cage (maybe 8 square feet), for over two years when his owner died. He was let out to a larger safe space a couple times of day and was nearby other cats as the kennel boarded a few cats from time to time. It really affected him and when I was forced to take him to the vet for his shots because my new city requires a vet do it annually in order to keep his pet license (one time minor fee as long as the shots are kept current), he just completely shut down. He went from loud crying on the way there to a pretty much catatonic (no pun intended) state. Next year I think I’ll try to throw a bunch of money at the vet to see if they’ll make a house call so i don’t have to put him through such a traumatic experience.
We don’t have a visiting vet (I checked) but I know a lot of cities do. Worth looking into!
You can’t return the cat food? I was able to take back unopened food before. I would definitely look into it before considering it a loss. If that doesn’t work, wildlife rehabilitation centers are always looking for cat and dog food donations. Sometimes I’ll get free samples of dog food I don’t want to feed my dog and I drop it off at my local wildlife center.
It was on sale and expires at the end of the year. I’m fine with it going to feed Fake Jake.