Today, immediately following work, I took Olive to the vet. One hundred fifty five dollars later (which will go unnoticed thanks to my tax return!), he's fine. For half the afternoon I worried myself sick thinking something serious may be wrong.See, I recently moved into a big house with my best friend. We have a small, domestic zoo of pets -- most of which are mine, and all of which I consider my children (I'm 24, unmarried, and hopelessly devoted to the unconditional love of animals, so sue me).
Some time last year, Angela adopted one from a family here in town. For the first few weeks of owning him (name: Wednesday), I reminded her about taking him to the vet, but eventually even I forgot.
Fast forward through us moving in together. I wake up one morning and notice Olive is quite clearly losing the delicate fur around his eyes, lips, and the brim of his precious, button nose. I start to worry. Stress? Rough housing with Wednesday (whom he treats like his baby)? Some kind of allergy to the house? A flea allergy?
It gets worse. While I'm at work, I take the liberty of looking up causes for facial hair loss in cats -- the results were horrifying. There were pages, and pages of diseases I can't even pronounce all with symptoms just like Olive was exhibiting. Aaaand, naturally, I panic myself. What if, in exposing him to an unvaccinated cat, I've also exposed him to diseases like Feline Lukemia, or potentially worse diseases?
My heart starts to race and, in that panic, I text my mom and ask her to get on AIM (I can't leave my desk at this time of day for any extended period, so AIM has to work). She gets on and I explain to her what's happening. She, along with two or three other friends, and Susan, all assure me everything will be fine.
I duck out of work at a quarter to five, zip home, grab Olive and stuff him in his carrier, and take him to the vet -- not even five minutes from home! The doc comes in -- who is a vet I've known and loved my entire life as a pet owner -- takes one look at Olive, goes over him with a flea comb and says, "no need to worry anymore, he's just allergic to fleas."
So . . . expose him to something is just what I did, but ... and THANK GOD ... it's not Feline Lukemia of FIV. So Dr. Lee gave him some fast-acting shot of antihistamine and a prescription of more Advantage (and importantly, some for Wednesday) and we were all set. And since treating two out of four animals is like scratching half an itch, I bought medicine to treat Lucy and Blondie too. It might seem pricy to pay $155 for flea treatments, a shot, and a visit, but considering the alternative -- and what I was expecting -- I gladly flipped my debit card onto the table and tossed out my worries for Olive.
Thank my lucky stars! Now... let's get these pets under control!
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