A Message from Mum

Hello to you all,
Plumpy and I are both sorry that he hasn't been on the blog for a while but we have been fighting over cat-food and I told him he wasn't allowed on the computer until he ate at least half of his dinner which he has refused to do for quite a few days now. I paid $30 for 1.7kg of Hills Science Diet when I could have paid $12.95 for 1.5kg of his favourite Optimum (with Ocean Pilchards). But the more expensive food provides him with a nutritious and balanced diet which fills him up whilst not fattening him up, so the Hills remains.

Last week when we visited the "funny smelling place" Nicci informed me that Plumpy had bad teeth and he would have to come in again for full surgery - a clean and polish and possibly extraction. I would like to reassure Scaredy, Mahou, Elbi, Beeps and families that at no point was it ever suggested by Nicci or myself that ALL Plumpy's teeth would have to be removed.
By Saturday night/Sunday morning came around Plumpy had begun to sneeze, and although I was away for most of the day on Sunday playing hockey my flatmate (Uncle Dean, the other Ginge) informed me that Plumps had been most annoying - he didn't stop sneezing the whole time. Fortunately Plumpy was downstairs by his dinner plate refusing to eat Hills and didn't hear his uncle's loving comments. I am suspicious this was part of Plumpy's plot to escape. Do you know anything about this Scaredy?

Tuesday was the busiest night I have had in a long time and under a great deal of pressure to get all my chores done in time I managed to get Uncle Dean to the supermarket and Plumpy to the...erm, place... all in one fell swoop. Like all cats Plumpy is more than capable of making it perfectly clear exactly how he feels at any given time. I wish I could say he was angry and sulking at my brutal treatment of him but the truth is he was very scared and frightened and wanted very much for it all to just go away. If Dean wasn't with me at the time I may well have found myself in tears. Plumpy certainly was.

Nevertheless I signed the forms authorising Nicci to give him all the painkillers in the world at my cost and left him with the nice cat-lovers at the...ahem...place.
The house was very quiet without him and I was at a loss at 0600 the next morning when he wasn't screaming at me to feed him! BEFORE your shower thank you Mother!!!

At work the next day I was involved in helping another avionics corporal take a broken piece of motorised equipment down the flight line to the "Support Equipment Maintenance Flight" (more commonly known as SEMF), when one of the junior tradesmen came out to tell me I had a phone call in the flight line office.
"Get their name, I'll call them back." Says I.
"It's the vet." Says junior tradesman.
So I left Loons (afore mentioned avionics corporal) high but not dry and raced inside. There I was debriefed over the phone as to my darling's condition and informed I would be able to pick him up any time after three. I had to do a quick mental arithmetic to ascertain she meant 1500 hrs, thanked her for her time and good work and raced back out into the rain to help Corporal Loons deliver the Talon Lifter.

I had promised rather faithfully to help a friend of mine move house as she wasn't taking any time off work in order to make the move, and I had a long way to go. I was in such a flurry to get home from work, changed, and on the motorway that I went the wrong way home from work and nearly....!! But no, I remembered in time and made the loop to come pick up my baby.
I was attended by the nurse who instructed me in the requirements for his food and antibiotics as Plumpy demanded from his cage on the floor to know where I had been and what I thought I was doing mucking around with her when we should be on the road home. The most humiliating part, he informed me indignantly, was that I had provided these people with his real name - which I knew he hated - and he was sure I had done it on purpose just to rub salt into his wounds. I knew though that he was just venting all the stress he had been through and didn't get offended at his high handed treatment of me as I handed over $315.40 to the nurse for their work.

Here is an excerpt from the bottom of the receipt (right under "balance due")
[Plumpy] may be a bit sleepy for the next 24hrs but should be getting back to normal after this.
Hmmm, I thought, Plumpy is usually a bit sleepy. In fact all he does is sleep all day. It seems my cat might be a bit odd. I little inverted perhaps. Topsy-turvey. Because he jumped out of the cage. He ran down the stairs. He wolfed his dinner. He ran up the stairs. He clambered over the couch. He sharpened his claws in the carpet. He ran down the stairs again. At this point I had to leave to go help my friend so I made sure he had fresh water, soft food and a box of litter as he wasn't allowed outside. I kissed him goodbye and away away!

ooo 000 ooo

When I opened the door around 2138 hrs (that's twenty to nine) he raced up the stairs to meet me, demanding more food. He wanted to know why he didn't usually get jelly-meat instead of that bollox I was trying to make him eat. But he didn't push the issue because I discovered he hadn't used the kitty litter after all. Oh no - nothing so crass as that! Apparently the bath is a much more appropriate place to release the demons! I wasn't too upset though because it could have been much worse! At least this was easy to clean.

And at the end of the day, Plumpy finally got his ultimate dream.
I let him sleep with me.

Though it cost me a cold nose in my ear, eye or neck every ten minutes; though it cost me regular lifting of the blankets to let him under the covers or back out from under the covers and though my 500 thread count Egyptian cotton pillow cases were ripped from pawing and stained from bloody-dribble, it was worth it. Because even though he doesn't think I do, I love Plumpy very much and he has been through a lot of stress lately. I have never heard him purr for so long without pause, he was still going at 0100 and still strong at 0330. I might have fallen asleep around 0430. He was still purring at 0600 when the alarm went off. He is still purring now, Thursday night, but he didn't want to relive the trial and so I promised I would write for him. See - I do love you Plumps!

But I suppose you have all been waiting to know what the damage is? Well I'm not sure he wants you all to know, but I think you should in case you make a faux pas in a future conversation.

As well as a clean and polish on the teeth he still has, Plumps had to have all four canine teeth pulled. Nicci informed me they came out very easily which suggests they were particularly bad, and he also had to have a fifth (upper) tooth removed. He also had an extra dose of pain relief before he came home and is on a course of antibiotics for six days. He's not to bad at taking pills,but doesn't like me sticking my fingers in his tender mouth. :-(

You will all be pleased to know that he totally won over Nicci. I'm sure she's seen plenty of cats in her time, but she told me she really enjoyed his company and it was a pleasure to have him for the day.

Mind you, he was on drugs. ;-)






Love from Ju's Little Sister a.k.a. Plumpy's Mum.