That Darn Cat!

Where were you at 6:40am yesterday? If you say “in bed” , consider yourself hated. At 6:40am I was dropping of The Kitty at the vet. It’s my favorite place to be at that hour. Its so convivial and homey - except its not.

It isn't convivial and homey at 6:40am, your own house isn’t all that homelike at that hour either. It’s too early. The vets' office is no different. I did discover that 6:40am is the best time to drive down Hillsborough street though. At that house the students are still snug in their tight little dorms, and those that weren’t, hadn’t even made the dreaded walk of shame yet either. It was me and the cat.

Kitty got to the vet and I got to work and I was only running about 5 minutes behind.

Time passes.

I read that Ann Richards died and I was sad. The 1990 governors race was the first big political thing I was officially a part of. The Young Democrats at my campus were all over it.

I’m not sure if you are familiar with the 1990 Texas gubernatorial race. I’m sure you are also well versed in the Democratic primaries leading up to it, am I wrong? Okay. It’s been awhile, you’ve slept since then. Long story short: I worked for Jim Maddox, a man so slimy he left a trail, because I thought he was enough of a scum to properly compete with the walking scuzz the rethuglicans had running. I voted for Richards in November but I thought it was just to prove a point. I was sure she wasn’t going to win. Imagine my shock when she won, it was a religious experience:It was good triumphing over evil for real. I was a Democrat in Texas, no one I had ever voted for actually won.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the 1990 Texas Gubernatorial race

The NYT


Me Bubba, you Jane - Texas gubernatorial race between Ann W. Richards and Clayton Williams

The day she was sworn in, at breakfast I was eating with my friend Clara and we were listening to the radio they piped into the cafeteria and we were all happy because the news was full of Ann Richards victory over the forces of evil, and this guy we knew from the dorms walked up. “This Guy” was severely mentally ill ( Dude had a chart) and he could be really mean and Clara was one of his favorite targets. We called him Crazy Jimmy Jigawat - because he looked like he had just stuck his finger in a light switch.

But that morning he was clean, his hair was brushed, he was dressed appropriately and he was thrilled about Ann Richards winning. We had a long talk about the campaign and the other candidates and politics in general. It turned out to be a great breakfast.

Okay skip forward to 2006.

The vet called me and asked if they could sedate The Kitty because he was severally losing his shit and eating their leather gloves and they couldn’t examine him. She also took the time to suggest a couple of very expensive diagnostic tests she wanted to do and she used the C word and I told her that if he had some sort of intestinal C word that he would be dead all ready, then I told her she was not going to do those expensive tests. Actually, I told her I am a poor person and I just spent $250 on Dogger a week ago and I couldn’t spend $250 on The Kitty at this time, or really, at any time for that matter, but if she must know, it would be after the first of next month at the earliest before I would have dosh for pricey diagnostic tests. I told her to give the cat time to chill out and under no circumstances was she do anything more expensive than running her hands over him.

Two hours later, I called her and told her to sedate him. She examined him and found nothing.I went to the office and We talked. We decided to up his pred and to keep him on his fancy cat food. It’s what you do for cats with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.