Hiya! No, I did not get lost on the way to my parents' house. I just completely forgot that I have a blog.
That, and I've been doing some knitting. Can't knit and type at the same time. Also? Not much has happened here lately. Haven't gone anywhere since the trip to the woods. Well. Work, sure, I've been there. Grocery store, craft store (see above, re: knitting), to the vet's (twice)...
Oh! There's something. The vet thinks that Sophie, who is probably only about three years old, needs her teeth cleaned. My knee-jerk (suppressed) response was, "Why? Somebody here have a car payment coming due?"
Because I am not made of money (and because the check from the IRS is in the bank, talking to itself, while I await further instructions and estimates regarding a possible family reunion in Iowa (which is beginning to look like it might not happen anyway)), I asked them how much this was going to cost. They gave me an itemized estimate and said that the price would be lower if it turns out they didn't need to take X-rays after looking at her teeth. It would be higher, though, if they had to do extractions. I think I understand how a car-owner must feel when they visit a mechanic. The quoted price? $386. Oh, my giddy aunt.
I'm not convinced she needs this. Teeth-cleaning is something you do to older animals, isn't it? Lolly never needed her teeth cleaned. Neither did my other cat. I don't remember Needles, the cat we had when I was growing up, ever getting taken in for a teeth-cleaning. The people at the vet's gave me a whole song and dance about inflammation of the gums and a missing tooth, and how things like this can eventually turn into heart disease if they're left unchecked (subtext: Do this or you're a Bad Mommy), so at first I bought into the whole deal. But -- this is the kicker -- we were originally there to get Sophie her shots for the year. She's had this sneezy little cold that she just couldn't shake, so they put her on antibiotics for 10 days. No shots that visit because her immune system was fighting the cold. I made another appointment for a few weeks later.
Second appointment, vet checks the cat over again and mentions that the antibiotic seems to have cleared up whatever was wrong with the gums. She was quick to say, though, that the "underlying problem" could still be there. Uh-huh. Or you want to separate me from my money.
I've decided it's time to vet shop. There's one much closer to me that I'm going to take Sophie to in a couple of months. I'm not going to say anything about anything. Though I might tell them that I'm vet-shopping. Let's see what they say about her teeth.
Next post: Knitting. I've been doing a lot of it, and I'm about to do some more.
