As you will recall from part I of this whinefest, I am driving my husband's manual transmission vehicle while mine is being repaired. More on that later. It makes me very cranky to shift gears. I have cursed more than once while clutching and shifting.
On Sunday night there was a cat fight in our driveway. We heard the screeching and Moses and I raced out to see what was happening. I saw a neighborhood bully cat scurry away into the bamboo forest across the street. Tippy and Tux were under the car.
Moses and I returned to the den. Several minutes later, the feral cats raced through the open deck door and went upstairs. When I went to bed, Tippy seemed OK but was grooming her back leg in a way that made me think something was hurting. I knew for sure something was wrong when she did not come downstairs for breakfast the next morning. Tippy has never missed a meal. I found her upstairs sleeping on a pile of blankets in the bottom of a closet. She was hot to the touch and did not want to be picked up and fussed over.
I took her to the vet as soon as possible and learned she had a 105 temperature. Normal for a cat is 100-102. The vet began treatment for a bacterial infection and hooked her to an IV.
Pepper also needed to go to the vet but I couldn't handle both in one trip, so I made a second trip back to the vet late in the day, for Pepper's medication check, and to see if Tippy could come home. I had no cat carrier for Pepper since I'd left it at the vet.
By the end of the day, when it was time to take Pepper, I was tired of driving this retarded vehicle. Pepper roamed all over the car, making her most horrible meow, which sounds like reeeeoooowww. Over and over again. Walking across my arms to look out my window, then back to the other side. Reeeeooowww. From the back seat .....reeeooowww.
I was really doing some cussing by this time.
Pepper's hyperthyroidism was found to be responding well to the pink pills we have to administer twice a day. We are happy about that since she looked mangy and bug-eyed prior to starting the pills. Tippy's fever was only down to 103, so she spent the night at the vet.
The ride home was peaceful with Pepper in the carrier.
The next day I drove to Charlottesville to have lunch with grandson Jackson for his birthday. I had made an appointment for Tux to get his rabies shot at 4 pm, and to bring Tippy home at that time.
Tux offered very little resistance to being shoved into the carrier and going for a car ride. His meows are rather delicate for such a large cat. While there I learned that Tux weighs 13.6 pounds. Tippy is 10.3. Pepper gained a half a pound since taking her pink pills, so she is about 6 lbs now. She was wasting away in addition to her other symptons.
Tux got his shot and Tippy was released. I asked if someone could carry the two of them in the carrier out to my car. I can barely lift my right arm from all the damned gear-shifting and they weigh almost 24 pounds together.
Somehow I managed to get them into the house where they were greeted warmly by Moses, who sniffed Tippy all over to make sure she was OK. She has a bare spot on her back leg where she was bitten, and her front right leg was shaved for the IV so she looks like a goth biker kitty.
Naturally I had to take a short nap after all of this.
Back to the car trauma. My car has been sitting over at the repair place all this time while they searched the entire country for a new transmission. The car is driveable with its current transmission as I think the case is cracked but it still shifts the gears AUTOMATICALLY, as modern transmissions are supposed to do.
Paul asked me if I wanted to keep waiting and leave the car there, or have them fix the tailpipe and drive it as is until the transmission comes in.
My response was: "grrrrrrrr aaaargh what do you think????? reeeeoooowww son of a bitch" .... and other words like that.
Moses also needs to go the vet to find out what the big lump on his side is all about. I told Paul he'd have to take him as I have had enough of the vet this week.
Happy driving everyone!
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