Today is National Black Cat Day! Cats Protection say that it takes much longer to rehome black or black and white moggies. I wonder why this is. We have 2 black cats and 3 black and whites, black and whites being my soft spot. They are just as adorable and characterful as the more colourful mogs in the world. Go on, adopt a monochrome cat. You know you want to!
This is our beautiful Arthur Cat:
This morning I took a couple of hours holiday in order to take my husband to the hospital to have an EEG (electroencephalogram). He is long overdue a brain check up as he developed epilepsy in his teens and hadn’t had any checks until this summer. So far he’s had an MRI, then an ECG and now an EEG…. A reasonably scary experience being as he was subjected to what I think were seizure inducing, horrid things.
The lady who called us in and did the proceedure appeared to have no sense of humour. She did not smile once in the hour we were with her and had the bedside manner of.. of a person with no bedside manner. She was not a reassuring being at that time in the morning.
Maybe it was because it was a Monday morning, I don’t know but if I was like that to our clients when they brought their pet in to have a proceedure done that they knew little about and were very worried about then we would get complaints! I would be friendly, warm and reassuring and just talk to them about it! I like to think that I treat people as I wish to be treated myself, unless I haven’t had chocolate for about a year!
When I got to work there were no cats in the hospital but I did see a little, tiny tabby Maine Coon this afternoon for her post op check. She may be tiny but she wasn’t happy and she didn’t mind showing it. When she came in to be spayed last week she was fine in her cage but decided she was frightened and/or feeling extremely threatened when we started handling her. She is one of those teeny cats that explodes with a spit, like a fire cracker. I always like to think that cats are misunderstood and never horrid. They are either frightened or frustrated and that’s what makes them (appear) grumpy.
So she came to see me today, walked out of her cat carrier extremely boldly but immediately hissed at me when I tried to tickle her around her head. I ended up having to retrieve her from around her daddy’s neck and have a quick look at her wound before she had a proper grump at me. Needless to say her nylon sutures had been well sucked on but the wound was fine. Cats never dislike me! I guess you win some and you lose some and she is booked in with another nurse for next weeks stitches out.
On the beautiful car park that is the A34 just under the bridge at Botley there is a dead cat. It has been there for a while. Every day I have a mental arguement with myself and this dreadful feeling of guilt as it is too dangerous to stop and pick it up. The road is fast, it’s on a curve in the road. Today the traffic was very slow so I had prepared myself for the inevitable peeling from the road that the rescue of said dead cat would now involve. I even have a plan, ideally it would involve a body bag, but a plastic carrier from the boot would do. Get stuck in traffic jam, put hazard lights on when next to poor creature, leap out of car with bag, peel cat from curb, pop cat in boot, leap back in car, drive on as if nothing has happened. I do hope that this happens at some point and I hope it is microchipped so at least the heart broken owner can put a close on the worry and dispair that losing one’s cat involves.
On a happier note, one of the receptionists at work gave me a fabulous colouring book called CATS Colouring for mindfulness. I thought I’d show you the first page I started the other day. Spot the Sphynx!
I have a slightly strange, anxious feeling as I’m starting this blog. I guess it may be because I’m worried everyone may think it’s really rather dull. I shall endeavour to make it as undull as possible.
Yesterday I went to the Icatcare congress in Birmingham. Having got up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday to catch the train I was delighted to find myself in a bit of a posh hotel in New Street, sitting next to a collection of other crazy cat people. Icatcare is a marvellous organisation that devotes itself to the welfare, understanding and health of cats and to teaching and helping those who care for them. I have decided to do their diploma in feline friendly nursing next year with the help of my lovely boses.
I have been to their congress for the past five years and this one was the best one yet. There were some fascinating lectures by Sarah Ellis and Martha Cannon, both heros of mine and I got to meet like minded people, eat lots of free food and have a good giggle. I even found myself standing next to Celia Haddon at one point! Plus it gave me 7 hours CPD time for not too much money, always a bonus!
Here is a link to the diploma I am going to do; Feline Friendly Nursing Diploma
This is teeny tiny Blini in our cat tent this evening.
