Now really, no proper veterinarian could go too long without telling you about their own pets. Since I'm sure they'll come up frequently, I might as well bring them into the picture right now. I have three cats, who are spoiled, pampered, and worshipped with great satisfaction by me, having no children to occupy any of my affections. Alice, Balin, and Fiona are presently curled up, surrounding me in my bed, having satisfied their daily duty of getting me to bed at an acceptable hour. Here on the bed they will stay until late in the morning when I rise. I am thankful to have cats that worship sleep as much as I do. I don't have any stories about cats pouncing on my bladder at 5am or sitting on my face until I get up to feed them.
While I've had many pets in my lifetime, my current three are the only pets of my adult life. Balin came into a clinic where I was working one summer before vet school as a pathetic, wounded little creature. A very kind soul had noticed this little kitten along side the road with an obviously injured leg. After a cast on the broken leg for several weeks, and lots of love from me, no one claimed him, and I took him home. He's a seal point Siamese mix of some sort and is my little weirdo as I affectionately like to refer to him. Balin was a very enthusiastic kitten, to say the least, and when he was about 6 months old, I decided he needed another cat to play with, so my legs would not be his preferred playmates.
Alice is my sweet girl, a muted orange tabby who I fell in love with during an animal handling laboratory session during vet school. We were supposed to be practicing putting on a cat muzzle, which is downright comical with a cat like Alice. She soaked up any attention and handling she could get and was more than happy to sport the muzzle for the sake of more loves. She was there from the humane society, was spayed, up for adoption and promptly found a home with me and Balin. She knew exactly how to come right in, make friends with Balin, and made me feel like I'd always had her. I tell you, Alice is the kind of cat you sit down with and have a cup of tea and conversation. You can probably see a trend developing in where my pets come from. I managed to go 3 entire years without bringing another one home, and hadn't really planned on more than 2, given my small apartment at the time.
And then there was Fiona. I was smitten from the moment I saw Fiona, once I finally did see her. You see, I was in vet school, and we were going to spay and neuter some pets for adoption. I went to examine the cat to which I was assigned, but upon first glance there did not appear to be a creature in the cage. Not until I actually opened the door and took a close look did I see this tiny grey tabby curled up and flattened down in the round litter pan in the cage, doing a very good job of making herself as invisible as possible. I picked her up and she wrapped her little front legs around my neck as though hugging me and clung to me as hard as possible, pleading to me with her scared eyes not to let anything bad happen. In keeping with that promise, I took her home with me. She is every bit as adorable, tiny, grey, soft, and sometimes as scared as she was that day. She has short little legs and a short little tail, and everything about her is as dainty as possible. Her greatest solace is in laying next to me on her favorite soft blanket, where she is as safe and warm and pampered as she can possibly be. I should add that Balin absolutely adores Fiona and seeing the two of them grooming each other frequently reminds me that the world can't be all bad.
And next time, we'll get to the cake....
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