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Unspeakable relief, and... chicken pox
Aug. 20th, 2013 10:56 amSo, the vet came today, to give ze boyz their rabies shots (Lola had hers back in April, before we did the whole certificate rigmarole). Lucius went into the travel carrier around 8.30 without so much as a meow and didn't wasn't overly stressed. When the vets (two this time, thank God!!) arrived, Cornelius was lounging in one of the armchairs -- doc crouched down, scritched him behind the ears, gave him the shot, and Fat Conny didn't even bat an eyelid.
Lucius, being frightened, cowered in the furthermost corner of the carrier. I reached in through the door and held him down, doc #1 removed the top part of the carrier, doc #2 took over from me while #1 gave Lucy the shot, and... finished. Smoothly, without a scratch or bite or temper tantrum.
I'm SOOOOOO relieved.
The Immutable Law of Karmic Balance, however, demanded some sort of payment. For a few days I've had a number of horribly itchy, round, red blister-y spots, mostly on my legs. One on the left side of my ribcage.
At first I thought that I was having a strong allergic reaction to those teeny-tiny scratch marks left by Rambo, but there are many of those, and it would be a bit strange if, say, 20% got infected or showed allergic reactions, whereas the rest didn't.
Then, however, I recalled Elena telling me last weekend that the boy of a friend of hers had the chicken pox -- she and baby Kalina had been to visit them just a few days before and she was anxious Kalina might have caught it. Well she didn't, and Elena is apparently immune, but gave it to me. I did have chicken pox when I was a child, and it's a very, very mild case (no fever, no complications) -- the really annoying thing is that it's itchy as hell. I'm sure it's not mosquito bites, because they look different, and I did a google image search -- bingo.
Now I'm a bit undecided; I suppose I ought to stay home, because it's highly contagious, and some of our staff have young children. OTOH, I've had it for three or four days, i.e. everybody I could possibly infect has aleady been infected, so where's the point, especially since I'm definitely not feeling sick? (No that a few days of sick leave wouldn't be paradise, but still...)
In feline news -- yes, sorry about that -- it seems that I've recovered my optimism. Besides, I re-read one of my cat-advice books and realized that I'm basically doing everything right; there was a paragraph about personal boundaries, though, and it somehow struck a chord.
If Rambo is badly behaved, it's mostly my fault: he has to learn to follow rules and respect boundaries, but I have to do the same. Like e.g. no touching him unless he explicitly *wants* to be touched. No touching while he's playing. You may shrug and say, "Duh!", but it's very difficult to remember that when this insanely cute ball of fluff is playing and rolling and jumping in front of you. Anyway, I got my reminder, and I'm stickig to the rules and beginning to teach him the meaning of "No!" (swelling with pride, because I did the right thing -- you say no and put him down, but immediately have to offer a distraction or reward). Lucius, as far as I can read him, is being playful rather than aggressive; he does swat at kitteh, but without claws and only if hitteh is being obnoxious. So I'm way more relaxed about leaving them unsupervised in Rambo's room for a short while, which in turn works miracles for my mood. Also, by the simple expedient of cleaning my teeth in the guest instead of the master bathroom, I needn't close Rambo's door for the duration.
So we're muddling our way through, the five of us. Yesterday Lola came very close to Rambo without hissing, and Rambo is acting a lot more relaxed around ze boyz, so I think there's reason for hope.
As far as New Colleague's IQ is concerned, there's absolutely no hope, but I'm taking it in stride. There are far more important things in life than stupid guys, after all, and I'll have to live with his stupidity and attitude for only three more weeks.
Lucius, being frightened, cowered in the furthermost corner of the carrier. I reached in through the door and held him down, doc #1 removed the top part of the carrier, doc #2 took over from me while #1 gave Lucy the shot, and... finished. Smoothly, without a scratch or bite or temper tantrum.
I'm SOOOOOO relieved.
The Immutable Law of Karmic Balance, however, demanded some sort of payment. For a few days I've had a number of horribly itchy, round, red blister-y spots, mostly on my legs. One on the left side of my ribcage.
At first I thought that I was having a strong allergic reaction to those teeny-tiny scratch marks left by Rambo, but there are many of those, and it would be a bit strange if, say, 20% got infected or showed allergic reactions, whereas the rest didn't.
Then, however, I recalled Elena telling me last weekend that the boy of a friend of hers had the chicken pox -- she and baby Kalina had been to visit them just a few days before and she was anxious Kalina might have caught it. Well she didn't, and Elena is apparently immune, but gave it to me. I did have chicken pox when I was a child, and it's a very, very mild case (no fever, no complications) -- the really annoying thing is that it's itchy as hell. I'm sure it's not mosquito bites, because they look different, and I did a google image search -- bingo.
Now I'm a bit undecided; I suppose I ought to stay home, because it's highly contagious, and some of our staff have young children. OTOH, I've had it for three or four days, i.e. everybody I could possibly infect has aleady been infected, so where's the point, especially since I'm definitely not feeling sick? (No that a few days of sick leave wouldn't be paradise, but still...)
In feline news -- yes, sorry about that -- it seems that I've recovered my optimism. Besides, I re-read one of my cat-advice books and realized that I'm basically doing everything right; there was a paragraph about personal boundaries, though, and it somehow struck a chord.
If Rambo is badly behaved, it's mostly my fault: he has to learn to follow rules and respect boundaries, but I have to do the same. Like e.g. no touching him unless he explicitly *wants* to be touched. No touching while he's playing. You may shrug and say, "Duh!", but it's very difficult to remember that when this insanely cute ball of fluff is playing and rolling and jumping in front of you. Anyway, I got my reminder, and I'm stickig to the rules and beginning to teach him the meaning of "No!" (swelling with pride, because I did the right thing -- you say no and put him down, but immediately have to offer a distraction or reward). Lucius, as far as I can read him, is being playful rather than aggressive; he does swat at kitteh, but without claws and only if hitteh is being obnoxious. So I'm way more relaxed about leaving them unsupervised in Rambo's room for a short while, which in turn works miracles for my mood. Also, by the simple expedient of cleaning my teeth in the guest instead of the master bathroom, I needn't close Rambo's door for the duration.
So we're muddling our way through, the five of us. Yesterday Lola came very close to Rambo without hissing, and Rambo is acting a lot more relaxed around ze boyz, so I think there's reason for hope.
As far as New Colleague's IQ is concerned, there's absolutely no hope, but I'm taking it in stride. There are far more important things in life than stupid guys, after all, and I'll have to live with his stupidity and attitude for only three more weeks.
