Adventure at the vet

We went to the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. I think we have now gone for 3 years in a row....I submit that it now qualifies as a tradition. I love watching Lana's reaction to the animals! Isn't so sad that we have to be adults now? What would it be like to be so easily excited?

Doesn't she look so cute in her new coat? Dan helped me pick it out the night before in Old Navy. Ha-ha speaking of Old Navy...Lana ran right into a post in the store. She was looking down at a crayon in her hand and WAMMMM! Full speed...right into the post! Knocked her straight on her back. The little bugger didn't bat an eye. She just got right back up. A lady who saw the incident was initially concerned but when she saw that Lana wasn't phased she said, "That was so cute!"

Another lovely thing Lana has been doing lately is gagging herself. She has figured out that ,without fail, I will always look at her if she gags herself. Originally, I was just telling her NO. But that only seemed to egg her on so I have started to put her in time-out for it.

Aren't thier expressions great here?
I had an interesting thing happen to me the other day. I would like to post a disclaimer before I write this down. If you are someone who will spend $1500 on your pet without batting an eye...DON'T READ THIS! You may hate me and think Dan and I are horrible people by the end.

It all started a few weeks ago. Lady (our cat) begun acting differently. She has always been a friendly nice cat, but not very affectionate until the evening. She started being very needy. Seriously, to put it into perspective, I could not sit down with out her on my lap within about 2 seconds. At night she was driving us crazy! She didn't want to sit anywhere but on top of our faces. I am not exaggerating.

After I had noted her odd behavior I started to notice other "symptoms". Her belly was bloated, her nipples were getting more noticeable, and she wanted outside for the first time ever. I was 99.9 % sure she was prego. DANGIT!!!!!!!!

To give some background to the story, Dan and I got Lady while we were at BYU. We were super poor (of course) and so we were kind of irresponsible and didn't get her any shots or get her spayed. But, we figured if we never let her outside, what could happen?

After that we never got around to doing it even when we could afford to. I tried several times, but Dan never wanted to spend the money. So here we were.

We could't figure out how she got pregnant. She seriously NEVER goes outside! But, I do leave our sliding door open sometimes so Lana can play on the patio. So, she could have snuck out. She's just such a chicken when it comes to going outside that I never worried about it. Well, I guess I should have.

On Wednesday we had known that she was pregnant for a couple of weeks. Lana was out on the patio playing when all of the sudden I heard a frantic, "NO NO NO NO" come from Lana. I looked outside and Lady was FREAKING OUT! I had hardly seen her even hiss before and now she was hissing, jumping, spitting and growling. I went and grabbed Lana away. I tried to approach Lady and she was still having a freak-out. I couldn't get her to stop for about a minute. When I finally got her to stop I carried her to the bathroom and locked her in.

I started thinking....what if she has rabies?? The beginning symptom of rabies is just a drastic change in personality good or bad. I called a vet and they said she probably doesn't have rabies because they are not common in our area. But she could have a uteran infection that I may have mistaken for pregnancy. So, I set up an appointment for the next morning. I figured at the very least if there is nothing wrong with her and she was not pregnant I could get her shots and have her spayed.

My appointment was at 9:00 AM. I had Lady and Lana. The vet came in and gave lady a basic check-up. She told me that she was not pregnant (yay!). But that her belly did feel weird and she may have what is called Pyometra (infection of the uterus) :(. She wanted to take x-rays and bloodtests. So, I asked, "Say you take these x-rays and blood tests and she does have an infection...what do you do?" She replied, "We just spay her." So, I told her that we wanted to spay her anyway so why don't we just do that so we don't have to pay for unnecessary tests. She told me the unfortunate part of that is that if they go in to spay her and find that she does have an infection the surgery will cost more. I asked her to make up estimates for me.

When she came back she gave me 2 estimates. One was for a normal price regular spay+vaccinations. The 2nd on was for if they find pyometra. IT WAS $1030.00!!! Of course, I start freaking out. I told her that I need to call my husband.

Now, for those of you who don't know Dan's stance on spending money on Lady..here it is. He has always made it very clear that if there is something major that needs to be done there is no way he is paying tons of money on a CAT. He says" We paid $15 for her and so nothing I have to buy her should cost more than $15."

I called Dan and his reaction was as expected. "There is NO WAY I am paying $1030.00." I told him I just didn't know what to do. If I told them I wouldn't pay it I had 2 choices. 1)Leave without doing anything, risking that she could be really sick and suffering
2)Have them go in to do a normal spay and if she has an infection to euthanize her.
By the time I got off the phone with Dan I was sobbing. It was just so stressful to have to make the decision. In addition to the last 2 choices I could go against Dan's wishes and approve the pyometra operation. But, I didn't want to spend $1030 either.

For those of you who grew up in the Missouri...I think you will understand. You don't spend money on cats!!! That is just how I grew up. If they were sick, you put them out of thier misery. And you absolutely do not pay more than we pay for groceries in 4 months! So, as upset as I was about Lady I couldn't wrap my mind around spending that much money on a cat!

Anyway, I went back into our appointment room (still crying)...(Meanwhile, Lana is happily pointing at all the posters on the wall saying "doggie!" "Kiki!") The nurse came in and asked me if she could answer any questions. And I just said, "I'm from Missouri....and in Missouri you don't spend money on cats!" I could tell she was annoyed/amused. The vet came back in and said, "Where are we at?" The nurse said, "She's from Missouri, and in Missouri you don't spend money on cats."

I told them I needed a few minutes to think about things. While they were gone, one minute I was crying about possibly putting Lady to sleep and the next minute I was crying about my $1030.

Then someone stepped in and said "Your husband is on the phone." When I got on the phone, he said, "Bri, I am just calling to tell you that you can do whatever you want. I'm not there. It is alot easier for me to say no. You know where I stand but I won't be mad at you if you decide to go ahead and approve it." AWWW so sweet.

I went back in the room and the vet was there. I thought for a minute and said, "I still don't want to say yes, but I can't tell you to kill her...so go ahead." I signed some papers and told her that I promised to cry again if I come back and I have a thousand dollar bill. I think I also said something to the effect of "It would be great if you could chant 'Don't have pyometra' as you cut" I was a little drunk on emotions. I cried the whole way home for my money.

They called a couple of hours later. The surgery was over. She didn't have pyometra!! WOO-HOO!! .
We didn't get stuck with a $1030 bill, so I am happy.