sitting

I shouldn't be sitting here this long. It's been about 40 minutes and I should have gotten up about 20 minutes ago.

Did you know that cats can have allergies to pollen, just like the rest of us? Guess how I know this. Yes, last couple of weeks there have been a few days here and there where the pollen count was not just High (according to weather.com) but Very High and yet I still opened the kitchen window because the weather was otherwise very nice and, besides, there really needs to be SOME fresh air in here sometimes. (We'll leave the discussion about how fresh NYC air is exactly to some other time.)

Anyway, I had also started to notice that Spike's white eye (that's the one that has white fur all around it, as opposed to the other eye, which has black all around it) was getting inflamed all of a sudden. Just for a little while and then it would go away. Then I started paying attention and, sure enough, I'd open the kitchen window and he'd jump up to, you know, survey his kingdom and 10, 20 minutes later he'd show up in my office with the eye all extra-pink and sometimes a little squinty, too. Sigh.

Saturday was the worst. Not only did his "white" eye get very inflamed and swollen, but it didn't respond to the eye gel that had been prescribed for him other times and then the "black" eye also got pink and swollen. Not easy seeing pink around an eye that has black fur and black "eyeliner", but it was there.

I waited till morning and called the vet. His regular vet was all booked up, so I chose one of the other vets and schlepped him over there. She confirmed that yes, it could certainly be allergies, but she prescribed him another antibiotic, this one with an anti-inflammatory and these were drops, not a gel, so I figured it'd be easier to administer. And it was, as long as I put his e-collar on him.

Twenty minutes later, both of his eyes were dramatically worse. So I called the hospital, where fortunately his regular vet was on emergency duty and he called me back a couple of hours later and told me what to do next. Tuesday afternoon is when Spike's eyes were both back to normal. Needless to say, I'm not opening my windows for the rest of the summer or fall.

(And, oh, in the no good deed goes unpunished line, I injured the piriformis in my left butt in transporting said cat to and from the vet's office. Am seeing Hector, the gorgeous physical therapist, tomorrow. This is why I'm trying not to sit very long.)