Sunday, July 08, 2007

Hundred Dollar Itch

Baby
I was already juggling phone calls late Friday afternoon, as a family member was in a car accident (no injury). My phone rang again Friday night:

"Are you still looking for a kitty?"
"Well, I'm keeping my eyes open, in case I see one that I really like"
"There someone I know that has one out here at the parking lot at work, and she's really adorable. I'd take it myself, if I didn't already have my kitty"
"I'll head down there in about fifteen minutes and take a look"

She was a three year old calico named Baby. I was told that she had an abusive home life. I didn't ask for any detail. He was trying to find a home for her tonight. I held Baby out in the parking lot and she seems quite contented to stay right in my arms.

Baby had some kind of problem. The young man showing her described that she stumbles. Baby has a problem with her balance. She can walk quite normally, but often has falls down, or stumbles as she walks. She takes it all in stride and just continues as she was. I decided to take her in. She tended to like quiet spaces (like under my bed) best, but was okay with coming out and being with people. She would come when called only with a great deal of coaxing.

Friday night I started getting itchy, enough so that I was up a great deal of the night. Saturday morning found me developing small rashes, and getting extremely itchy. I brought Baby to the vet to get all the suggested inoculations. The veterinarian said that most likely, Baby's balance issue started at birth and that it could improve, stay the same, or get worse over time. And Baby had fleas. The gave her the drops to handle the fleas, but by this point, I was breaking out in small patches of rashes from the flea bites. I went through a flea ordeal a few month's ago due to an unknown (then) issue at a friend's house and still had some of the medication from it, so took it. The rashes are mostly gone now although some of the itchiness remains.

I decided that I could not keep the cat. I imagined that the flea problem would take a few days to subside. I did not want a replay of what I went through a few months ago. I did not want a problem to crop up again a few months from now either. I went through a list of several animal shelters (no-kill only). Of course they were closed down, or full, or no longer doing such programs, etc. I wound up being lucky enough that the person who showed me baby would take her back. He said that he knew some one else that would take her. Yay!

So end of story, I'm out a hundred dollars for the veterinary fees and got quite an itch still. At least I know Baby will get to a nice home. I'd say I've learned something, but...