A catecdote
(Might as well post this here too....Stupid Diaryland)
These things only happen in my house
A little background first. My mother’s cat, Mickey,
is very old (18) and he has historically stinky
breath. It was discovered about a week ago that his
bad breath was caused by a gum infection so they put
him on antibiotics.
(Sidebar: Holy crumb! I just realized we’ve had
Mickey half my life. I got him in April 1987 after
breaking up with my first real boyfriend. He was my
cat then but became my mother’s cat when I went away
to college. Mickey never really forgave me for
“abandoning” him until I moved back in here a few
years ago)
So I enter the living room this evening and Mom says
to me, “Vicki, smell Mickey’s breath to see if it
stinks.”
“No,” I say, reasonably enough, I think. After all, I
haven’t had dinner yet.
“No, I need a second opinion. I think his breath
smells fine now but I want to make sure it’s not just
me.”
I look at her skeptically, but not as skeptically as
Mick. And he also looks totally offended. (And
please don’t tell me cats don’t understand what we’re
talking about because they so do)
Mom says, “Go on Mickey, give Vicki kisses,” and,
well, I love the cat, so I put my face down next to
his. He sniffs my face a few times and I sniff deeply
– no rank cat breath, so I figure my job is done.
But no, apparently because he did not lick my face, I
was not fit to judge the foulness (or lack thereof) of
his breath.
So then, Auntie De decides we need to get him to yawn.
So she begins with the exaggerated
“Yaaaaaawwwnnnnnnnn”-ing.
I just look at her and shake my head. She is SO
bizarre.
Finally, Mom says, “You have to smell his breath. My
nose is so clogged up I can’t smell anything.”
Soooo…..we’ve gone from “Oh, his breath smells fine
but I just want a second opinion” to “Oh the cat could
very well still have the breath of the dead, but smell
it anyway.”
Finally, I just give up and pop his mouth open
(something we’re good at because we have to give him
thyroid medication) and stick my nose and there and
take a good long sniff and pronounce that he has
perfectly sweet cat breath.
Yep, that’s my exciting evening. Some people lick
toads. I sniff cats
(My REAL site -
http://vickithecute.diaryland.com)
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