Friday, July 27, 2007

Hiss and Spit

I was going to say it's been one of those weeks, but I don't want to generalize. The Country Cousins had their spay and neuter date on Wednesday. Procedures went well, but they came home hissing and spitting. Especially the girls. Can't say as I blame them. The guys may be squeamish about the neutering procedure, but male kittens barely notice it. They're just glued together, in fact.

I think one of the reasons it's worse for the girls, in addition to it being an invasive intra-abdominal procedure, of course, is that they are under anesthesia longer. Anesthesia makes people crazy, and it makes cats crazy. One of my favorite memories from medical school is of a lewd, uninhibited septuagenarian as he was coming out from under anesthesia. I thought of him as GiGi was making for the steak on my plate on Wednesday night.

They also remind me of students who have gone off to school and come home swearing. Maybe they were contaminated by their contact with other foul-mouthed kittens at the vet. A loss of innocence.

This weekend we have a visiting kitty. Her name is Poppet, and she has only one eye and a bit of an attitude. I'll tell you more about her some other time. The reason I mention her today is because she is a hiss and spitter, too. May be genetic... she is actually an older half-sib, or whatever you call a kitten from a previous litter, of the Country Cousins.

So it's anything but dull here. Hiss. Spit. Akhkhkhkhkh.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG! So cute. It must be hard to foster. There are two kitties at my shelter that I'm in love with...nobody wants them because they are plain, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. It's so HARD, isn't it?

Does anesthesia really make people crazy? I've had it 3 times and I remember thinking I could fight it, and then---zzzzzzzz. Very crazy.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that image of a "lewd, uninhibited septagenarian". Filling in the details with my imagination is probably worse than the actual memory (at least I hope for your sake).

gottagopractice said...

Rarely "crazy", but often uninhibited. Most people have an amnestic response, though, which means we don't remember what happened while under anesthesia. Probably just as well. I'm sure that septuagenarian would have been very embarassed!

It is hard to love them and let them go, funky, but fortunately very rewarding.