First Week

Today is our 1 week "anniversary" with Hayden.

This has been a long, long critter week at our house.

On Sunday, Hayden destroyed one shoe each from three different pairs of shoes and broke into 2 bottles of vitamins. On Wednesday, Hayden began eating her wooden crate. She's into a wire crate now and things have settled down. Because she was abandoned, she seems to really have difficulty when we're gone. Secured in her wire crate, we've managed to duck a lot of further issues.

Everything was sort of compounded when we went to the vet on Tuesday. It's tricky being new to a town and trying to choose doctors. I found the Alaska Veterinary Clinic, because one of the doctors volunteered extensively for the ASPCA spay clinic. I thought it would be nice to patronize his clinic. We knew Hayden had a skin infection when we adopted her... and the vet confirmed this. We thought this would be the big thing. But, I took Nelson in also, because he'd been scratching his ears; I thought he had allergies. Nope. Nelson has Grade 3 dental disease (1 is the start, 4 is the worst). Apparently, he wasn't scratching his ears, but his mouth. Poor little guy.

Unfortunately, my visit was the worst visit I'd ever had to a vet. The vet tech did as much of the exam as the vet herself. I couldn't ask many questions because the vet was in and out so much. She also wasn't able to give any insight into why a 4 year old cat would have such severe dental disease, nor any ideas about what we might expect in the months and years ahead. And, the surgery was going to be performed by yet another vet. Hmmm... no.

Avril, one of John's co-workers, highly recommended Dr. John Basler at College Village Animal Clinic. He was fantastic!!!! I took Nelson in on Wednesday afternoon. He spent over an hour with us. He was thorough in his exam, and patiently answered my questions. He also printed off information for me to take home and read. Then, he rearranged his schedule for Monday (since he was going out of town on Tuesday) to fit Nelson into surgery--so he could do Nelson's surgery himself. I'm so very, very appreciative of all Dr. Basler did for Nelson. I'm optimistic his surgery will go well on Monday.

So, phew... we're almost into the weekend and are optimistic the weeks ahead will be much smoother.

(The picture is of Hayden with her favorite toy "Pinkie"-- a pink hedgehog.)