When the Good Lord above created me, He installed within my soul a genuine love for animals, especially felines, and especially the felines known as the domestic cat.

Well, needless to say He created a monster.

When people look at me, they see a cat lover. When cats look at me, they see SUCKER branded smartly on my pale forehead that begins to glow when the sun sets gently in the horizon. At least, that is what my latest addition saw when he came barreling towards me from across the street, mewing loud enough to get my attention and satisfy his inner-Siamese.

What could I do? I was doomed. As soon as I saw this small, solid black cat lacing itself between my legs and heard it's urgent purr, I knew we had to adopt him (or, if truth be told, he adopted us). Even Robert was instantly smitten. He agreed that if the cat was still around after we came back out (we were visiting my parents) that we would take him with us. It was obvious he was a stray, and barely seven months old. He needed a home, and although we needed another cat like we needed holes in our heads we took him with us to add to the three we already had.

This was a week ago. Let's flash foward to Valentine's Day morning when I awoke to cat diarrhea *everywhere*, and I mean *everywhere*. In the bathroom. In the kitchen. In the hallway. In the living room. In the dining room. On the couch. Pick a room, and it was there. The little black cat (whom we named Julius) had been neutered and de-wormed several days before, and had had a little bit of diarrhea over that past few days but had seemed to be improving. I had planned on taking him to the vet that Monday morning, but never in my life did I expect to wake up to YUCK everywhere. It took me so long to clean it up that my son had to miss his Valentine's Day party at school. It's bad enough when your child has diarrhea, but when your cat has it it's positively disgusting. The one saving grace, however, is that it did not smell. Nope, not one bit. For those of you who don't believe in God, you might want to reconsider because I am convinced that is the only reason why my cat's you-know-what didn't stink to high heaven. Even the Lord didn't want to deal with that kind of smell! When I told all the vet people about it's lack of odor, they looked at me wide mouthed as if they couldn't believe it, but I take it as a mercy blessing; the Lord knew I couldn't deal with the mess if I had to deal with the smell as well. And who says miracles have to be huge to be miracles? The Red Sea can't be parted all the time, you know.

Anyway, back to the story; I bundle cat and kids in the van and sweep off to the vet in hopes of a cure, or at the very least a plug for one very drippy kitty butt. Once there, he is weighed and temp taken, to which we see he is normal and has gained a pound in little less than a week (okay, so at least he's eating!). He's not exhibiting signs of a sick animal other than the crap-fest that's been going on over the past few days, so the doc gives him some suspension for cociddia (a teeny one was found in his stool sample, so it's better to be safe than sorry!) and some very good, very pricey wet food. She suggests I keep him in the bathroom until his *quote*projectile diarrhea*end quote* goes away. Blecggggggh. What a way to put it, but I suppose it was accurate.

Well, I kept him in the bathroom for the rest of the day and fed him the 'good stuff', only to find he had two little bouts yesterday afternoon but none during the night. I let him out this morning to join the rest of us, and he was very happy about this; that is, until I tried to force-feed him his medicine. Ever tried to give an unwilling cat something he doesn't want to have? Trust me when I say you come out of the experience the worse for wear. He ended up with more medicine in his coat than in his belly and my hair standing on end. I'm surprised I didn't break out into a sweat after the trussel. Maybe I ought to contact the World Wrestling Federation and see if they have "Giving Cats Medicinal formulas or Vitamins" and enter Julius, because whoever went against him wouldn't stand a chance. I'd be rich after the first match.

The upside to this whole story (assuming you are still reading) is that Julius seems to be feeling better. The downside is that Meow Mix doesn't seem to cut the mustard and I may have to shell out a lot more money for better quality cat food. If I had just one little stinky-butt cat it wouldn't even be an issue, but I have in addition to him three much older, much larger male cats that like their tucker and a lot of it. I don't know how they are going to go for any new frou-frou designer cat chow, but they just may have to suck it up and deal. I just hope I can afford it, for when all is said and done my fuzzbutts are certainly worth it.

Now: go kiss your furbaby and thank God it doesn't have diarrhea. And if it does, then pray to God that it won't stink...

Feeling:shady lady
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