This Is The Way We Go To The Vet During The Pandemic

It’s time for one of Skitter’s booster shots and her Centerville city license expires on May 5th, so she needs a new one. She also needs what they call an “older dog” physical. Plus, I decided that since we live in the bigly city, she really ought to be chipped.

I called Dr. Doolittle’s office yesterday to make Skitter’s appointment for this morning. When I made the appointment, I was told to not enter the building when I arrived, but to stay in the car, then give ’em a call to say “My mutt and I are here,” and then someone would come out to fetch the patient.Bow Tie o’ the Day and I drove The Skit to her appointment, and a masked vet tech came out before I could even call to announce our arrival. She told me one animal was ahead of Skitter, then she grabbed a dog patient from the car across the parking lot from us. So Skitter and I sat for a few minutes in the waiting room which is also known as my car. About ten minutes later, the vet tech came for Skitter the Skittish.

Before she picked up Skitter from the passenger seat, the masked vet tech and I discussed the exact purposes of our being there. I’m glad we did that because it seems their ID chip shelves were as bare as toilet paper shelves were at COSTCO two weeks ago. The vet clinic’s scheduled chip shipment hadn’t arrived. The vet tech said she would take Skitter in to take care of the other stuff today, then I could make a future appointment to get Skitter’s chip. I said “Oh no, we will not!” We’ll schedule one appointment for some time in the next few days.

I refuse to make Skitter go through the fear and anxiety of even one more vet visit than she absolutely has to. Skitter will see the vet for these needs once, when they can all be taken care of at one time. She can barely handle a vet appointment without shaking her bones into dislocation.

In her photo here, notice The Skit’s praying paws and the forlorn look in her eyes as she waited with me in the car/waiting room for her turn. She and I are glad she escaped the vet visit for at least another day. As we pulled out of the vet’s parking lot, I swear I could hear Skitter actually say, “WHEW! That was a close one.”

Bling Is A Glittery-Good Thing

Remember when you were a kid and you got a cool new clothing item you’d been bugging your parents to buy you—like a swimming suit or moon boots or a holster for your cap gun? Remember when you finally got it, how hard you then worked trying to convince your parents you just positively had to sleep in whatever new thing it was? You pleaded. You begged. You played out all of your best kid-brain parent manipulations right up until bedtime, when your parents finally got so worn down and sick of your tricks that they gave you their ok to wear whatever you wanted to sleep in, if you would just get in bed and go the heck to sleep. “But don’t put any caps in your cap gun,” they said. Which, of course, you loaded up with a full roll immediately—even as you were swearing to your parents you would never be so stoopid as to sleep with caps in your cap gun. And remember when you just had to shoot a cap off every so often under the sheets so you could see the spark and smell the smoke? And then one spark got on your new swimming suit and melted a hole in it, while burning you at the same time. And remember how you tried to get out of bed to save yourself from what you thought was an impending house fire, but your bigly moon boots got tangled in your sheets mostly because you were wearing a pair of your dad’s old spurs on them? And then remember how you frantically rolled out of bed and onto the hard floor, because when you were a kid, carpet hadn’t been invented yet? And remember when your dad woke up because of the commotion you were making, and when he walked into your bedroom to check on you he didn’t say a word? He saw you weren’t injured and nothing was on fire, and he put all his effort into trying not to laugh at you in your predicament. He simply turned to go back to bed, holding the back of his garments shut as he chuckled in the kitchen. And remember how you deduced your dad had shared your little fiasco with your mother almost immediately, because five minutes after you were re-situated in your bed, you could hear both your mom and dad laughing. Remember when that happened? Or maybe it only happened to me. Probably more than once.

Anyhoo… I admit right here and now that I have used and abused amazon prime far too much since our lovely pandemic has kept us homebounder-than-usual. But guess what got delivered to me yesterday? My new pair of Hello Kitty sunglasses, which I soooo had to sleep in. Check out the bling on Hello Kitty’s Bow Tie o’ the Night. Best. $4. With. Free. Shipping. Spent. Ever.