When my Grand daughter was here, I sent the afghan I made for her hubs, home with her.  I guess he really liked it.  He had made a comment to her that, "We need more blankets around here."  Maybe being so tall tends to make him feel the cold?  Anyway...........

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You just never know when an ordinary day is going to turn into a crisis, do you?

I think I told you that my Buddy cat had been having problems with his lower front tooth.  Suddenly Tuesday night he refused to eat his wet food.  Wednesday he wouldn't eat, nor drink.  I could see his tooth was sticking forward and I figured that was the problem.

But...what could I do?  I had $130.00 in my checking account with an expected automatic payment of $142.33 coming out on this Tuesday.  I was worried on how I was going to find the needed $12.00, let alone think of paying a high Vet bill.

I fretted and stewed and tried to find a "free" animal clinic around here.  There are none.

I knew I had to get him to a Vet or he could get dehydrated from not drinking and then that would lead to more problems.

Around 11:00, Wednesday night, my Bonus Daughter Chris called from Idaho.  I was crying and she was comforting.

"You take him to the Vet and then you have them call me and I will give them my credit card number.  This is how I lost my Smokey.  I figured his bad tooth would just fall out.  Instead it got infected, he got a bad infection and died."

"Chrissy, I can't do that.  This is going to cost a fortune!"

"Jude...a fortune to you, is no big deal to me.  Now do it tomorrow morning."
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First thing Thursday morning, I called the place we had taken Fred's dog.  I know they are a wonderful place--plus they are open 24/7 for emergencies.  They told me to bring Buddy right in.

Now--trying to get this big cat into the carrier proved to be almost more than I could do.

First I took the carrier into the bathroom.  Buddy always follows me into the bathroom.  I sat on the stool and waited.  In he came.  I shut the bathroom door and for the next 25 minutes, tried to get a clawing, growling, large 18# cat into the carrier.

I'd get him in and before I could zip up the door of it, he had wiggled out.  Backed himself into the corner of the shower room and hissed and growled.

I tried to talk him down.  Explained that he had to get in that carrier.  Tried to entice him with a treat........................then, I was breathing hard, my heart pounding and it was full on, YOU WILL GET IN THERE!  I put a towel over his head so he couldn't see and stuffed him in the carrier.

We were feeling the remnants of hurricane Florence, so it was pounding rain.  So hard I could hardly see to drive with my wipers on full speed.  Then the interior of my windshield and back window, fogged up...Buddy was growling in the carrier, I was trying to roll windows down and up and..................

I got to the Vet's 45 minutes later, normally a 20 minute drive.  Buddy's mouth was bleeding AND the bad tooth was gone!!!!!  I must have knocked it out in our tussle.

As we waited in the little exam room, Buddy didn't like the stainless table, of course, so I picked him up to hold him.  He climbed up my left front, draped his front legs over my shoulder and set his claws into my upper arm back.  

The Tech came in and I pried Buddy loose to get him on the table again.  The other bad front tooth was still intact.  The Tech noticed I was bleeding from my upper arm, so he tended to my claw punctures while we waited for the Vet.

The Vet came in, we chatted a moment, then he swooped Buddy up, draped him over his arm and was out the door.  He came back in a few minutes, minutes that had given me time to pray and calm myself down.

Buddy seemed fine.  He was more than happy to crawl back into the carrier with no prodding on my part.

Not only had they removed the bad tooth, but had also trimmed his claws and given him a long lasting antibiotic shot.  They didn't charge for the tooth extraction or the claw trim.  

I really didn't want the extracted tooth, but the Vet presented it to me like it was some kind of treasure, so I felt I had to accept.  He told me Buddy would expect at least a quarter under his pillow that night.

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The office call was $46.00 and the injection was $50.00.  I had figured it would be at least $150.00.

I gave them Chris' phone number, they chatted over the phone, I got the receipt, they carried the carrier to my car for me and we were on our way home.

I was wet and chilled from the rain we had to walk through, so I put the carrier on my bed, opened the little front part, and figured Buddy would come out on his own, while I toweled myself off and slipped into a dry shirt.

At first, he didn't want to move and when he finally did come out, he wouldn't even look at me.  

He stayed under the bed until evening and then, I put his wet food out and he wolfed it down and wanted more.

He is a happy cat once again--missing two front lower incisors, but can eat well.  Yesterday, he was even playing "zoomies" with Maggie.  Running up and down the length of the house.
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God bless Chris!  She's saved my life more times than I can count and this time, she saved Buddy's life too.