Around three in the morning after the Great Financial Aid Meltdown, I woke up to the distinct: ka-thump, ka-thunk, MEROOWWW of a liberated cat. Stumbling out of bed, I was fairly certain of what had gone done and when I turned on the kitchen life my suspicions were confirmed: while participating in overly-exuberant communications with a local ruffian (I'm pretty sure Mom jokes were slung and my honor was impinged) Murry knocked out a window screen and cavorted off into the cold, dark morning to defend my reputation.
What. A. Dick.
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| What? Did you want to read your homework? |
I went outside to knock the screen back in (we can't bet letting Joe Lewis out or nocturnal Florida wanderers in) and after doing
so, stood around calling his name and shaking a bag of
treats in the hopes that I could
bribe him home from his adventures. Then
I realized that I was standing in my backyard at three in the morning in my
underpants calling my cat to come home.
This may in fact be an all-time low for me, which if you’ve been around the last few months you’ll
know, that’s saying something. However in
my experience, early morning all-time lows are just the universe’s way of
saying: GO BACK TO BED.
So back to bed I went and not surprisingly, Murry made his
way home all by his onesies about three hours later. Tuckered out and inordinately sleepy and
lazy:
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| so very sleepy at 8 am |
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| still...can't...get...up...at 5 pm |
Ha.
True to form, that pansy-ass stinker is just not tough
enough to be an outdoor adventurer. I
thought that maybe we’d manage to skip making traumatic trip to the vet, but three
days later and a mere four hours before I was supposed to leave for a
conference in Orlando, I walked into the my closet and was greeted by a very
squinty and (I assume) rather uncomfortable kitty.
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| what? this is how my face usually looks |
One Friday afternoon emergency trip to the vet later yielded
a diagnosis: an upper respiratory infection requiring antibiotic eye ointment
and fancy-schmancy, immune-system boosting kitty treats. I blame the esk-AH-pay.
Ever wondered what thirty dollar cat treats look like?
Voila! They have an appetizing chicken-liver flavor and appealing
fish-like appearance. I'm sure that it must be the
fish-like appearance that makes them so schmancy. That and the sprinkling of
essential amino acids to encourage cellular repair and health and well-being!
So, two weeks and yet another show of amazing friendship
from the amazing people in my life later(three of whom rallied like champs to get us
to the vet and to give Mur his twice-daily eye ointment I was in Orlando,) we
pulled through.
At first I was
tempted to say that my plea to the universe for life to get just “a little bit
easier” had gone unanswered. Then I thought
about how generous people were YET AGAIN with their time and support and I remembered
that good friendships trump circumstantial challenges every day of the
week.
Meredith, Andrea, Kristin and Erica…I am SO GRATEFUL FOR
YOU!
