The vet’s tests show that Star is completely healthy! The quarantine is lifted.
Home from the Vet. That Wasn't So Bad.
The only disappointment of the day is that she was given a vaccination which the vet said would make her “grumpy” and “lethargic”, but which I say has made her “miserable” and “frighteningly lethargic”. Witchdoctor’s advice after rattle shaken and poisons administered, “She won’t feel like meeting Lovey till tomorrow.”
On Second Thought, I Need a Nap
And she doesn’t feel like meeting Lovey, in spite of his evident eagerness for a new companion. When Star got home, after a period of normal frenetic play she got sleepy and sleepier and sleepier. She cried some, licked her lips a lot, seemed feverish and to have a stomach ache, and had me thinking of the emergency room, but Julia comforted her while I had a nap, and now the kitten has actually tried to play a little and before falling back to sleep between my feet.
Inspector Lovey Informed That His First Date with Star Is Cancelled.
Along with the good news, I’ll get a report of two typically human controversies out of the way.
One is about Star’s breed. As soon as I saw her I said, “Siamese!” Never to be satisfied with my opinions, much less my wise counsel, Julia did some research and announced, “Birman!” Now, to me Star looks about as Birman as a lion, but an unbiased eye would see the similarity. Like the Birman (which nobody around here had ever heard of until yesterday), Star has white feet along with the “points” that Birmans and Siamese share. On the other hand, Star has shorter hair than shown in the Birman photographs. When, this morning, I asked the vet what breed she saw in Star, she innocently threw herself into the fray with a prompt, “Siamese.” When put to the rack, however, she confessed, “there could be Birman characteristics”. Her concluding words were, “Leave me out of this.”
To the above opinions we have to add the judgment of the internationally noted animal expert, Link of Australia, that Star is an “Alley Cat”. (See Link’s comment.) “Alley Cat” is a breed with which I’m not familiar. It’s probably well known in Australia – perhaps the only cat breed they have there – but I need more information from Link before I’m going to back away from “Siamese”. Anyway, I want to emphasize that Star was discovered next to a gaily painted U.S. Postal Service box on one of Lake Helen’s finest boulevards, and not in an alley.
