I woke up this morning and wondered why I had a butterfly in my stomach? That feeling that something was different? That the sun was shining? Well, the sun was shining but that was not it. Then, I remembered! We were taking Katja to the vet today! A trip outside the neighborhood, other people, other sights, other sounds … No wonder I was excited. It’s been since about 9 March that I had left my immediate neighborhood, seen a stranger.
I put on makeup and brushed my hair, because you have to look good for the vet assistants 🙂 Driving there was exciting, there were many more cars on the road than I had anticipated and we wondered where they were all going? A lot of restaurants were open but had huge signs up saying “drive through only,” many I expected to be open were closed, others, like auto supply stores were open. HomeDepot, of course, was open with lots of cars in the parking lot, banks all shuttered. Arriving at the vet’s there were signs saying “stay in the car, phone us and we will come and pick up your pet.” So we did phone and waited, along with half a dozen other cars. Katja had stopped yowling by this time and all was peace and quiet. Eventually a young lady came and asked some questions and then picked up the cat carrier and took Katja away.
After a while the phone rang and it was the vet explaining what she found and what she suggested be done. We said thank you, may we discuss this and call you back. We decided we could order one item online for $12.75 instead of paying $81.00 to the vet. We also figured we would rather be methodical than throw Katja to the battery of tests suggested, and chose a couple, then called the vet back. After waiting in the sun another 20 minutes and having someone call to get our credit card, Katja arrived back to the car via another young lady.
So we headed back home and our exciting day out ended. It had been exhausting – seeing so many people, seeing and breathing so many cars, realizing that life had not stopped completely for others as it had for us – draining …