The house call vet came over Friday morning, and for the first time I was faced with an interesting dilemma. Usually when she comes over, I chase down Zucchini and lock him in the bathroom upstairs, but this time I couldn't exactly do that, because that's where Checkers is still hanging out. So I decided to take a chance, and when I noticed he was lurking in the kitchen cupboard in the corner, I stuck a chair in front of the door so he couldn't escape and figured I'd see how that worked out. Unfortunately, when I tried to extract him, he freaked out completely. I'd hoped to drag him into the laundry room, but that wasn't going to happen. So we let him go and the vet and I decided that, based on the speed at which he flew up the stairs, he was obviously feeling well and healthy and could forego the usual yearly checkup. Instead, she left me the syringe with his booster vaccinations and I managed to corner him two days later so I could inject it.

For being the smallest cat in the house, Checkers required the most restraint. I burrito-wrapped her in a towel and between the two of us we managed to get her checked and vaccinated and also clipped her claws (something I've not been able to do on my own). The rest of the cats were almost boring by comparison to Checkers and Zucchini. Looks like we'll need to take Rosie and Sebastian off for some tooth work, but otherwise everyone's in good health.

Too bad the cats can't take any comfort in the fact that we've had to go off for our own tooth work. Both Richard and I had three cavities each to deal with. He got his filled last week; I had mine done this week. Between us and the cats it's been all about health maintenance lately, but the important part is that it's just the usual stuff. No one shows any sudden weight loss or other weird symptoms. The only issue we've still to deal with are Checkers and Rosie (and the medication seems to be working better, enough so that we've been able to start slowly weaning them both off), and some antibiotics for Tangerine. After the past two years of issues with Allegra and Rebecca, it's a bit strange to be faced with such mundane issues that can be dealt with by the mere act of giving a pill.