10:07 p.m. - Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2003

So I am all moved. I have lived in San Antonio for almost 2 weeks now. Sir left back out on tour with the Drum Corps Saturday, and I have spent the time since he has been gone sifting through the remnants of the exploded cardboard elephant, and caring for my puppy (He is 14 years old, but just like my natural born human children will always be my babies, Beau will always be my puppy.) and my step kitties.

Well very early Wednesday morning I woke up to the sound of Shadow (the male part of my step kitty duo) scratching on paper. He had found a piece of packing paper on the floor and was scratching at it. I shooed him away from the paper and promptly went back to sleep. Oddly he didn't hop back up on the bed to go back to sleep with me, and he always sleeps with me. I figured he was mad because I took away his newly found toy and wrote it off.

A few hours later I crawl out of bed and amble my way down stairs to start my day of checking email and drinking coffee while listening to my self made juke box on the computer. (I have a few hundred songs downloaded at this time so I load them all into media player and let them go on random setting. It is fabulous!) I notice Shadow has found a magazine on the floor among the small "Don't find a place to put this. Just throw it away." pile on the floor. I ask him what he is doing. He looks at me. I go investigate. The magazine is wet, but only slightly. I was confused. My first thought was that he peed on it, but he doesn't do things like that. He knows his litter box and uses it regularly, and besides, it wasn't really wet enough for him to have actually peed. Also it didn't smell like cat urine and those who have experienced cat urine know that it has a very distinct and potent aroma. I went ahead and tossed the magazine, and turned around to find him in the middle of a large clump of packing paper. This time he has assumed the pee position. I was stunned! I yelled, and once again he just looked at me. Then I noticed that there wasn't much wetness once again.

I decided that he must be having a hard time holding it in and really wants to use his litter box, but maybe it is too full. So I go to change it. It isn't full, and he is all in the middle of my checking on it trying to once again pee. He finishes and I notice that there seems to be nothing where he was just squatting. Strange. So I decide to go ahead and change it all out anyway. I dump the whole box into the trash bag and head for the litter to refill. No sooner do I return with the litter than do I see Shadow in a now empty litter box trying to pee. This time he finishes leaving about the amount found in a Visine dropper. Now I have finally come out of my morning fog. Now I realize what it going on. He has a bladder infection of some kind!

Great. Sir is out of town. I don't get paid until Friday. I don't even know what vet to call! I call Sir's cell phone a frillion times trying to reach him, and in the meantime I make an appointment with the first vet I see in the phone book that has an address containing a street I actually know in this town. About an hour before its time to go Sir finally calls. I explain the situation, and he gives me the name of the vet to use. Great veterinarian. He skipped his lunch to wait for me to bring him in when I told him what was happening. He was afraid that he might have been blocked completely and if so, we were in BIG trouble. He did a urinalysis. Gave Shadow some kitty valium and kept him overnight to watch and make sure that he would start to pee freely again.

Today Shadow was able to come home. I went to get him. The vet explained the problem, handed me some kitty amoxicillin and valium as well as a new cat food to maintain proper PH in his urine to avoid this situation repeating itself. He also told me that I could wait until I got paid Friday to pay him! So we get back to the house, and Shadow is wandering around making sure everything is where it was when he left. Molly (the female part of my step kitty duo) is watching him intensely. Every time he comes near her or she comes near him she gets a whiff of the vet and animal smells and begins hissing crazily at him. Poor kitty. Also Shadow now does not want to be in any room that I am not in. Everywhere I go Shadow is right behind me. He even jumped into the shower with me tonight and stayed in the back on the ledge until I was finished and got out. I guess he was totally traumatized by the whole ordeal, or has now developed some strange phobia to being in a room without me. Who knows. Hopefully everything will continue to clear up, and he will once again be back to the silly cat that he is soon. As I type this, Shadow is laying on the treadmill behind me and Molly is staring at him. She's probably fixing to start hissing at him again. Beau has taken his normal place under this computer desk and will remain there until I get up to go to bed. Goodnight everyone!