Minister the cat has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle. He also has a bit of valve leakage, which is what caused the heart murmur. He’s been given the human beta-blocker, Atenolol. His first dose was this morning and it prompted him to throw up for five hours. I’m now waiting for the cardiologist to call me back, because this prescription is clearly not a good match.
I didn’t know until I went to his website this morning that the doctor is the heart specialist for the animals at the National Zoo. Pretty impressive. And even with his exotic credentials, he was down-to-earth and treated Mini like he was the most important patient he’s ever seen. He was even good with me, which is rare for a lot of vets–many focus so much on the animals that their people skills tend to go south.
What kills me about all of this is Minister’s unflappability. I drove him two hours for this appointment, pinned him down for twenty minutes as he had a sonogram, and then drove him two more hours to bring him home. When I finally let him out of the carrier, he ran out, went maybe five feet, and then circled back to stand up and put his paws on my leg like he does when he’s happy to see me. The week before, he’d had an ear infection and I had to jam gunk in his ears for ten days. Still, he didn’t get mad at me. Last night I gave him a bath to wash off the residual gunk from the medication that had crusted in the fur around his ears. Not only did he tolerate that, he sprawled on the floor and let me dry him with a hair dryer. And this morning, I jammed a pill all the way down his throat, and he swallowed it and then came back to sit on my lap like nothing happened. With our old cat, Elwood, it was a fight every single day to medicate him. Then, here’s this one who could care less what I’m doing to him. He’s probably the best tempered cat I’ve ever seen, and it makes me mad that he has to deal with this the rest of his life.
Anyway, the vet seems to think we’ve caught this problem early enough that with continual medication he should live for many years. And who am I to argue with the guy who treats the Capitol’s collection of lions?
There’s still no word on the literary agent, either. I was hoping this weekend would be the magic one, the one where the caller ID displayed the New York area code, but apparently not. Now I’m wondering if she ever got the submission at all. There’s no logical reason why she wouldn’t, but paranoia is a wonderful thing. At any rate, I think I’ll start getting together a bunch of new query letters this week. If I don’t hear from her by the end of the weekend (which is the official end of the ‘one to two months’ time for a response stated on their website) I’ll start sending off multiple submissions to the next round of lucky victims.
Remember when I said I was eager to move on to this stage? I take it back.
Hell and Wheels 
August 24th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Why am I only getting this in my blog reader today? I hate it when I miss stuff!Wow, your poor cat! He sounds like my Big Lug! I love all cats, but ones that are so loving just really get in your heart, you know? He really trusts you. You could do anything to him, and he would trust it’s for his own good. Isn’t that the sweetest love?I envy your play in the NY game. I really do. It sounds horrible, but it’s the first step towards something very cool! I’m wishing you luck!
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Your veterinary tales make me thank my lucky stars the Angel of Cat-astrophe has passed by my door!I don’t know how I’d afford it!Agentwise: Fear not, Avery. The slushpile is tall, and many are the works therein. And of course, agents like to spend a fair amount of time, you know, selling their clients’ books. Fear not.If you keep the faith and write your heart out, you’ll get there. In the meantime, have you checked out the helpful advice of Miss Snark? There’s a link on my blog. Her blog’s not live anymore, but that just gives it more of an Indiana Jones feel to me. It’s like the Lost Write-a-Query and Get-an-Agent Catacomb!
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Kate — He’s okay, though, really. This morning his new medication delivery method was crushed pill soaked up by tuna fish. He’s not all that traumatized, anymore. :)Sqt — It’s rough when they’re hurt, isn’t it? They can’t tell you what’s wrong and it’s really hard to figure it out. The same little guy fell fifteen feet from the top of our stairs last year and won a trip to the E.R. He’s just trouble-prone, I guess. As for the submission, I’m hoping she’s still passed out on the floor from the amazing-ness of my writing. Or, she’s just busy. Considering I just said, “amazing-ness,” the latter is more likely. And I do need all the luck you can wish me, so thanks.Charles — I just want an answer either way at this point. I’d be happy with a “You suck,” note right now.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:46 pm
That IS a good cat. The query stage is certainly agonizing. Hang in there.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Boy, you are one heck of a good cat owner. I went through something like this with my cat years ago. I came home from work and my cat was Army crawling on the floor because he couldn’t move his back. I was over at the vet getting x-rays until very late at night and trying to figure out how I was going to pay for a severely hurt cat. Fortunately he only strained his back and didn’t break anything. But he scared the bejeesus out of me. I bet your submission got there. Hopefully she’s just immersed in the story. But I’m going to wish you luck anyway. (though I’m sure you don’t need it)
August 20th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Aww… I got tears in my eyes thinking of that poor kitty. What a sweetheart. I hope he’ll be all right and that the meds help. Good luck with agent thing – I haven’t tried that yet, but I do have some in mind for whenever I finish one particular WIP, for which I’ve given myself a 12/31 deadline.