Barley does not do travel very well

 I started my day having breakfast with friend Mary, her husband and his brother, in Trego, WI.  It is a halfway spot with good food and we meet there with some frequency.  Mary is very generous and brings both her brother-in-law, and me, a dozen home grown eggs.  They are so pretty and wonderfully delicious to eat.

Next on my agenda was to take Barley to the Vet for a well-cat check up.  She has been puking a little more often and she is going to be 14 in the fall.  I've been watching so many episodes of Dr. Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet on the Animal Channel, that I thought I better take her in to be looked at.

Other than howling the entire time like I was torturing her, she did fine. The new duffle bag style carrier is wonderful.  There was some confusion, I made the appointment at one vet clinic and then I went to the other clinic. Good thing I was a little early so I could shuttle over to the one where the appointment really was. I thought I had made the appointment at the clinic where I took Hops, but in my contacts, I had the name screwed up so when I called, I called the new clinic. Duh!  Both Vets were very understanding, they tell me this happens quite often.

As it turned out, I really liked the Vet at the smaller clinic.  He reminded me of Dr. B on Rocky Mountain Vet.  He did a full exam and gave us a very good report.

The vet said she's in really excellent shape for her age.  He said that her teeth and gums look fine, dance of joy! He also said she's starting to get just on the high end of her weight range so he just wants me to be cautious about how much food & treats I'm giving her.  She weighs 10.5 lbs now and 11lbs would be on the high end.  But he also said, when an older cat is this healthy, he does not want to rock the boat.  He suggested making some minor changes to food volume and see how it goes.  He was amazed that she has gained about 2 lbs since Hops died.  Evidently getting older cats to gain weight is not always easy.  He remarked that her coat looks great, her kidneys are symmetrical in size so no reason to do any testing of any kind.  There is some cloudiness in her eyes, but he said that is very normal as well for a 14 year old.

 She got a rabies shot, did not even flinch when they gave her the needle, and we were on our way. 

I am quite pleased with this update.  Barley was pleased to get home and get the hell out of that cat carrier.  I guess she's just a home body, travel is not her bag.

She gave quite a vocal report to the bridge group about the whole experience and then, to top it off, she puked up some dry food for me to clean up.

So it goes.

She assumed her post on top of the jewelry box for the rest of the afternoon.