Luca’s rough day

Saturday was a tough day for the Alexander kitties, especially Luca. It was their Annual Trip to Get Vaccinated.

We have a friendly neighborhood vet next door to the Subway restaurant where we take the animals for big-time checkups and emergencies, like when Chelsea was worried that Sinatra had a tumor on his stomach. (As it turns out, the boy was just putting on a few pounds.)

But when it comes to vaccinations, we try to save a few bucks by driving out to Garland to a fine establishment called PetMobile. This little business made its name by packing some RVs full of low-priced vaccinations and driving around the Metroplex, but they also have a walk-in clinic.

Step One in Vaccination Day is getting the kitties in the kitty carrier. I’m sure you know what a challenge getting a cat in a carrier can be. Now multiply that by two, with a few degrees of difficulty added on because Luca is overweight by about 10 pounds, Sinatra has really sharp claws, and you have to get them both in a carrier that was realistically designed for a single, declawed, optimal-weight cat.

Once we completed Step One, it was off to PetMobile. Now for poor Luca, being crammed in a cat carrier with another cat for a bumpy ride in an SUV is not the most pleasant experience. Plus, Chelsea went grocery shopping on Thursday and for some reason decided to buy a new flavor of cat food called “Urinary Tract Health.” Yum!

So as you might expect, the poor girl threw up, with most of it landing on Sinatra. Unfortunately, we were only about halfway out to Garland at that point, and seeing as we just got the Jeep, we decided to cut our losses and leave the kitties in the box.

Once we got to PetMobile, Chelsea cleaned up the kitties and the carrier while I filled out the paperwork and waited in line. Apparently the word about cheap vaccinations has gotten out, because the waiting room was pretty packed with a variety of felines, canines and their owners. But they moved pretty quickly, and we were soon at the front of the line to get shots.

“Whoa, you’ve got two kitties in there?” the Shot Technician asked. “Okay, who’s first?”

Sinatra, being the more eager one, went first. (Did I mention he has sharp claws?) Then it was Luca’s turn to come out of the carrier. “She’s a big girl!” the Shot Technician observed. Both cats were vaccinated without incident, and we made it home just fine.

To add insult to injury, though, Chelsea rightly decided to give both kitties a bath once we got home. There is perhaps no worse sound than that of a cat getting a bath. As the kitties dried in the sun, though, you could tell they felt better. They had survived a rough day. And we haven’t had any further digestive (or urinary!) tract incidents. That new flavor of cat food Chel got must be working.