Soap Opera Central -or The Drama Continues!

Yesterday was indeed a bad day! One thing compiled on another which worked on something else and presto magic - overload. A lot of it compiled easier than it should have too because I didn't take my meds yesterday. OK, lesson learned from that and I took my lovely xanax this morning before I even had a sip of my first cup of coffee. So things are a lot more level today.

Well, they were until about 1 p.m. anyway!

Mandy was sitting on the sofa, folding clothes, watching tv; I was in my normal spot - yeah, right here at ye olde computer - and suddenly she jumps up, crying "What's WRONG with MY CAT?"

Whadda ya mean, 'what's wrong with your cat?' -what are you talking about is my calm reaction and then she starts crying "MY cat, my cat is bleeding all over the place!" WHAT? WHERE?
I get up, look over, the cat is sitting on an old notebook that Maya is allowed to have to color/draw/scribble in (in hopes it will keep her from coloring/drawing/scribbling on the walls and the cushions too on the sofa) and on the page the cat is perched on I spy what Mandy is screaming about - a pretty good sized drop of blood alright!

Now the first thing you have to realize here is my daughter, Mandy, the baby, is a total cat lover! She likes dogs ok, but she LOVES cats! Any cats! But, most especially this cat!

Gracie - this cat - well yeah, she's pretty special to all of us I suppose it would be safe to say. For one thing, we've had her longer than any other animal that has ever graced these doors and floors - 15 years last November to be precise. Yep, we acquired her right around Thanksgiving of 1991! She was the cutest, most loveable, friendly little kitten and is today, still a loveable -albeit sometimes not too bright, a bit standoffish too now and again, but generally friendly big old cat now.

She's a calico I guess - black with tiny gold speckles really -and very furry! Her tail is one that stands up, curls around is extremely furry/fluffy! She really is a beautiful old cat, for sure!

I looked where Mandy said she had found the blood was coming from and it was near her mouth but off to the side a bit. Looked more like a hole of some type to which Mandy said it almost looks like she has a warble. A warble? Thought cats had to be going in and out of the house to get them, but what do I know? This cat rarely is OUTSIDE! In her 15 years of living with us, you could probably count on both hands only how many times she has been in the OUTSIDE world!

I told Mandy to call her brother, which she did - telling him in no uncertain terms to "GET DOWN HERE! There's something wrong with Gracie!" And to him, that constitutes a major emergency too because you see, he and his sister are definitely cut from the same fabric there as BOTH of them are mega Cat lovers! Within five minutes time, he was here, checking Grace out, listening patiently to his sister crying as she searched the phone book for the number of a local vet!

Several phone calls and at least an hour later, they had rounded up a cat carrier from our neighbor two doors over, had made arrangements for a vet over in State College to look at Grace and off they went. And, I gave them my bank card as they left the house just in case the cost was more than what Mandy had in the "extra funds" department. (I'm still kind of cringing at the idea of having given her my bank card while taking the cat to the vet! I may have to go nicotine free this month whether I want to or not!)

It's an hour drive from here to State College - at least - so allowing for travel time, waiting time, examination time and all that, I finally took a chance and called my son on his cell phone to see if they had any news yet. And yes, they did!

They were on their way home with good news and bad.

The good news is that for a cat her age, Grace is pretty sound - heart, ok, other organs appeared to check out alright too. The area affected - appears to be some kind of benign tumor that ruptured is the vet's opinion, but apparently not believed to be life threatening to her at any rate.

The bad news - she has to go back to the vet in about two weeks to have the tumor removed. Base cost for that $130, but that is WITHOUT him doing a lot of other tests, blood work, etc., etc., etc., which will up the cost at least double!

Damn, why didn't I put the cat on some kind of insurance policy?

But you know, bottom line here is Gracie is gonna be fine, just fine and who knows, maybe even last another few more years living with us and being loved by most everyone in the house -except for the son-in-law, who would have loved nothing better than for the vet to have told Mandy today to put her out of her misery!

But when that day comes, if Bill is simple enough to even look like he is the least bit happy and excited to have a cat free home, he'd best watch his p's and q's there or he won't be the recipient of any of the little amenities that are generally assumed to be a big part of being married!

And the rest of us will no doubt go into a major state of mourning too when we have to say goodbye to the prettiest cat ever! Hope it isn't for a long, long time to come, ya know!

This isn't exactly the best photo ever taken of our Sweet Gracie, but it's the only one I could find right now. But, if you zoom in, I'm sure you can see what a gorgeous cat she is. Pretty darned patient one too being caged up like that with the infamous "Miss Maya" too!