Friday Cat Blogging: I hate vet bills

You know how they say that animals can smell fear? I think Shebang has developed a new sense: smelling impending vet appointments. I’d set it up to bring her in yesterday afternoon, and before I’d gotten out her cage or put a jacket on or anything, she hid under the bed. She just knew. There are certain places in my apartment from which I cannot extract her: under the bed being one, and inside the couch being the other. Once I get a job, I need to get a new couch. She can climb into this thing, and no matter which way I roll it or turn it, she stays inside. It is fucking huge.

But since I couldn’t retrieve her for the vet’s, I postponed the appointment until this morning, and managed to fool her enough to grab her and toss her in her cage. Ha ha, I win this time!

The good news about the vet visit is that she’s mostly healthy. Blood and urine tests came out fine, except for some slight anemia. The bad news is that I spent hundreds of dollars I don’t have to find this out.

But I am glad she’s fine, really. The vet thinks she’s just suffering a flare-up of her inflammatory bowel disease. Poor thing. Nobody likes pooping problems.

I wish I could write off the vet bills in my taxes. Declare Shebang as a dependent, or some such thing. I’d use this article to make my case: Authors’ mews: writers and their cats. It talks about how, when you look at the back cover or inside flap of a book and see a photo and short bio of the author, it often has a picture of the author with his/her cat, or the mention of the cat in the bio itself. Surely, then, a cat is necessary for writing, and should be considered a working expense.

A friend sent me this link yesterday: How to tell if your cat is trying to kill you. I suggested that the creator of that site stole the idea off me, though I’m sure it’s a common worry, given how cats are inherently evil. And via Sue I saw the online quiz related to the site: Is your cat plotting to kill you?. I honestly don’t think she is (right now), but here’s what I got:

Oh, and here’s a photo of a cat sleeping on a statue. There’s something sickeningly sweet about this, that cats can get away with that sort of thing. If I went out and grabbed a nap on a public sculpture in town, I’d be forcibly removed by the parks board.

That’s it for the cat links. I leave you with a photo I took last month with the built-in camera on my Macbook. Shebang sure knows how to make herself comfortable.