We forgot the cat again. We didn’t forget to feed her or change her litterbox. No, we forgot to take her to the vet to get her fixed, again. The phone call from my lovely wife went something like this:
LW: Did you make an appointment for the cat?
Me: I knew I forgot something! Did you make one?
LW: No, and she’s doing it again.
Me: What? That’s impossible! She just went through this.
LW holds the phone out so I can listen to the cat moaning her bewitching taunt to any would-be boy cats in a ten mile radius. We talked about it and agreed that it had to happen. With the busyness of life, we just never got around to it. To quote a favorite phrase in our home, we got stuck in the “tyranny of the urgent.” So she hit a cycle for the second time, reminding us of her needs. Often…and loudly.
We have two old labs, one we call Toby Flenderson. If you watched The Office, you know Toby is short on personality and so is our dog. She never does much – just lays around and looks at you. She will momentarily spring to life to smell the butt or crotch of a visitor just to embarrass us. But it isn’t long before she lays back down, and looks at you. Well, the cat in heat has decided that Toby must be the one who can satisfy her urges. I don’t know why, perhaps it is because the dog is more dormant than the other one. Regardless of the fact that the dog is spade…and female, the cat has perfected a dance of love designed to woo her. She flops around in front of the poor pooch all day long trying to seduce her. Worse yet, at night, she calls out to her, waking us up with her songs of love.
She got so desperate yesterday, I think she downloaded some Barry White on iTunes and bought Toby a shot of tequila.
While most in the house laugh about this, the entire thing has been fermenting in my youngest daughter’s mind. She hasn’t had “the talk” yet. So she doesn’t know why Kitty is doing a low crawl of love across the floor. Oh, the questions! What does ‘in heat’ mean? What is fixed? Is she broken? Why is her bottom in the air? Why does she keep nuzzling Toby?
Since we’re cat newbies, the oldest has been doing research on the topic. Turns out, this might last a while as they can go into heat over and over and over until…well, you get the picture even if our youngest doesn’t.
Guess who’s going to the vet soon?
A Generous Helping 
LOVE the title of this post! Your writing style was engaging and witty. Good luck ‘fixing’ the kitty 😉
Thank you very much Cheryl. March 3rd is the day.
Every farm in our neighborhood has a minimum of thirty “outside” cats, This is corn and bean country, and the “outside” cats keep it from becoming mouse country. No one bothers to fix the “outside” cats since nature and farm equipments controls their population. The thing is, every house has a few “inside” cats too, which are always fixed.
It is just another of those odd things that you don’t think about too deeply, least it hurt your head.
I guess that’s the circle of life Iowa style! Thanks for stopping by.
i’m guessing you are. with the cat. oh, how nature gives us clear reminders at times )
Appointment has been made! Unfortunately, they are booked because February is teeth cleaning month, so we might go through this again.
that is so funny if you think about it. what if human could not pick up their birth control because it was national dentistry month?
Haha. Irony- your specialty.