Thursday, Mar. 24, 2005
Tobey, posted at 6:31 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I never have my cell phone at work. If I ever do, invariably it will ring, and it usually will be somebody I don't want to talk to, like a bill collector (not so much of those anymore) or a Baltimore Sun subscription seller. Today, like usual, I had my cell phone out in my car. However, since it's often pretty difficult to find a working phone at school, I went to my car in the middle of the day to get it so I could make some calls to plan the big field trip for May 6.I happened to have it on, and was waiting for a call-back from the field trip guy, and my roommate called me. Hmmm, I thought. That's odd. She never calls me during the day, and she knows I'm a teacher, so I can't really take calls during the day. I let the phone vibrate away, hoping my kids wouldn't hear it, and worriedly dashed into the hallway at the first opportunity. She hadn't just left one message, but she'd left two. The first was explaining that Tobey the cat was acting really funny and she was thinking of taking him to the vet, and the second came through in slow motion, and I was expecting that second message to say that he was dead.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case. The roommate noticed that Tobey seemed to be trying to pee and couldn't, and seemed to be in pain. She immediately brought him to the vet in the morning, even taking out a pet care loan to get him in there. Tobey had urinary tract infection and blockage (the #1 killer for cats), and had to be admitted and cathetered. Tobey was acting a little funny last night, now that I think about it; I remember jumping in bed and being surprised to feel him up at the top, just rolled into a ball; usually he's running around and meowing throughout the evening. The point is, this was probably occurring last night. If the roommate had waited on it, Tobey would be a goner right now; it usually just takes 24 hours for the kidneys to be damaged.
He's still not out of the woods, but the doctor says he's 99% of the way there. He can come home tomorrow if it turns out he can pee okay in the morning, which the doctor is hoping is the case. A Fool's Fate saved my cat's life, and I'm ever so thankful.
Upon hearing about the cat and the subsequent $800 bill, my colleagues at work took the opportunity while I went to the bathroom to chip in, and when I returned from the urinal, they had a wad of cash for me to help defer costs. I was shocked and moved for the second time in one day at the kindness of friends.
Definitely a day of thanks for good friends and thoughts for the Tobester.