Burnie

During my recent trip, I received a call from a vet who was taking care of Burnie.  Since I learned that Burnie is diabetic and needs two shots of insulin a day, I bring him to a local veterinary hospital for boarding whenever I travel.  The vet said that Burnie wasn't eating and was having trouble urinating.  They took x-rays and they showed a blockage and possibly some growths or spots elsewhere on his body.

This upset me, there I was 3000 miles away and this vet made it sound like Burnie was at death's door.  Since I would be home in a few days, I asked that they make him comfortable and that I would decide what to do when I got home.

When I got home and picked him up, Burnie was his usual self, even serenading me on the whole 1/2 hour drive home.  I decided to let nature take its course and keep him as comfortable as possible.  That now included a pill twice a day and a dose of liquid directly into his mouth twice a day also.

Evenings at the house now resembled a hospital - Burnie's insulin shot, pill and liquid medicine, Crash's ear rub for her overactive thyroid and my cough medicine for the cold I caught on my trip.

Things have settled down a bit since then, but Burnie still gets his insulin and sometimes, I am able to give him his pill.  Have you ever tried to give a cat a pill?  It's not a pretty sight.  Even though I'm able to get the pill into his mouth and I massage his throat to stimulate swallowing, he spits it out.  I've tried putting it into his food, but he eats around it, leaving the pill.  I'd say he actually gets about one out of every five pills. 

After all this worrying and fighting with the pills, he's doing surprisingly well.  Last week, when I announced that it was snack time, he ran so fast to the kitchen, he actually beat Crash and me.  I guess the reason he wasn't eating at the hospital was that he didn't like the food they gave him, either that or it doesn't taste as good as when you're stealing someone else's food.  And he's still annoying Crash whenever he gets the chance.  I think he wanted to get even with me for going away.