Gracie update 6: The visit

I went to see Gracie before the vet closed tonight. She looked pretty miserable. She has an IV in her front paw, and she threw up while I was there. She’s still doing that every few hours—that was the fourth time today.

I tried to get her interested in a Junior Mints box that I brought along. Spearmint is from the catnip family and has the same effect on cats, and she’s always gone nuts for the box when I give it to her. She was utterly uninterested.

But she did blink at me when I called her name, and asked her who was my girl. Kitty kisses. And she definitely enjoyed the ear- and chin-scratches, miserable as she was. No purr, but I can’t blame her for that.

I am hoping very, very hard that tomorrow, the vet finds the world’s most expensive hairball. Or at least, the most expensive hairball I’ve ever had to pay for. My friend Heidi, who is a nurse, is of the opinion that it’s some kind of blockage. She said it came up too quickly to be cancer.

I hope she’s right.

We’ll know tomorrow morning. The vet opens at 8. I’m not sure when Gracie is scheduled, but I’ll be getting a call sometime in the morning. And Gracie is in good hands. While I was there, the tech cleaned out her cage and put in fresh towels after I told her that Gracie had thrown up on the newspaper. And the vet was confident and reassuring. Gracie’s seen all three of the vets at the practice now.

It’s a good thing I didn’t get much sleep last night. I’m going to sleep the sleep of the exhausted and hope Tig doesn’t decide he needs to be petted at 6 a.m. again.