No, not a bad Sylvester Stallone movie. But bad, nonetheless. Just emerged from the darkness and wanted to get past the holidays before I laid this down on you:
We have 3 cats, a momma girl cat (Selina), and 2 of her boys JoJo and Oscar Leon (don't blame me, the wife named the boys. Okay, blame me for Selina, kinda. She suggested that for our first cat, which would've been great if it was a girl). She got "Oscar" because he was a grouchy kitty at first, and "Leon" for Napoleon, because he was the runt of the litter. He has warmed up to us, unfortunately not to anyone else. In fact, he's so bad at the vet's they have to put him under to examine him. The first year they noticed what they thought was a heart murmur, but they couldn't be sure if it was because he was out or what.
Last week, it seemed like he was breathing so heavy, his sides was going in and out. I was hoping it was something that would go away in a few days. But it was still there last Saturday. Something told me to take him in and have him looked at that day, and it was the last chance before Christmas. I have all 3 signed up for a health plan through PetSmart, and called and scheduled an appointment for 2pm. I had to pick up Kathy from work at 1 (unless she works late) bring her home and go take Oscar in. I had no problem with traffic until I got to the turnoff to go into the shopping center where PetSmart was, where it was backed up to the turnoff. And the next intersection to turn in was a 4 way stop. Fortunately, I made it in time. Unfortunately, Oscar was true to form and not letting the vet look at him. She took him in the other room. A few minutes later, she came back in and said that Oscar had fluid in his lungs, and possibly a heart murmur, but they couldn't tell for sure without an X-ray. She then told me that the X-ray, heart pills, shots, and pills for his sickness would be just short of $400. I explained I didn't have that much, it was decided to take care of the immediate problem with what I had, since they could do at best 1 instead of 2 x-rays if they proceeded, and the heart pills would be only if the murmur was the diagnosis. She said they would give the shots and pump oxygen directly to him to see if he got better. If he didn't get better in 20-30 minutes we were looking at euthenasia.
Did I mention that Kathy wasn't with me? That she was at home? And that she doesn't drive?
I called her and told her what was going on. She said she wanted to be here in case the worse happened (as I suspected she would, as Oscar was the one she picked out as her favorite when he was born) So I called my parents who live nearby to see if one of them could take her.
I called home, line was busy.
I called mom's cell, went to voice mail.
I called dad's cell, went to voice mail.
I don't remember if I tried them again, but I was going to try home one more time before asking Kathy to go over and see if she could get them. The phone rang at home. Mom answered, I explained the situation, she said she'd bring Kathy down.
By that time, it was a few minutes before I'd find out what... The vet said Oscar was looking better, and explained about getting him to take his pills, a water pill 3x a day (which was real small) and an antibiotic once a day (which was bigger) She explained that if it came down to getting him to take one of them, to get him to take the water ones, as it was helping get the fluid out of him. She also suggested giving him can food and to make sure he had plenty of water. I went out and waited for mom and Kathy, who had to go through the same gauntlet as I, and gave them the news. We sent mom on her way with our thanks, got some cat food (and yes, the cat) and went home to care for him, wait, hope and pray.
He is doing better, his little sides aren't going in as deep as they were, in fact, his breathing looks like the other two. Ironically, reading about what Tammy went though years ago about this time helped get me through.