Let me share something this week that I've learned. No, it doesn't have to do with anthropology. It has to do with cats. Mr. Kitty started acting out of character yesterday. Dominic and I both noticed that he was in the litter box a lot on Monday. Yesterday, Dominic caught him trying to pee on the bed- which he has never done before- but instead of urine drops of blood were coming out. I took him to the litter box and he struggled for minutes to pee. I did some quick searches and decided that it was urgent enough to take him to the vet.
I took him to the University of Missouri veterinary teaching hospital. They are excellent there, extremely friendly, and were willing to keep him for testing (instead of making me wait) while I went to class.
It turns out that he probably (unless he doesn't improve, but I think he is) has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease. This is relatively common in male cats and can be serious if full blockage of the urinary tract occurs. This can be caused by diet (we are switching him to a wet food), age (middle kitty age), obesity (he is just big-boned!), and stress. And we all thought Mr. Kitty was chill! But the move has been generally stressful for him.
Right now though, he is a super happy kitty. He's on some pretty awesome pain meds along with his anti-inflammatory pills. AND he gets fancy wet food. He seems like a much happier kitty.
Okay, well, maybe that wasn't all that interesting to anyone else, but cat owners be on the lookout! The symptoms are easy to see and if left unchecked it could be pretty serious. I had no idea this was something I should be looking for or how common it is, so just an FYI for cat owners.
Other than that, it's been a pretty typical week in grad school life. I had a great time Friday night hanging out with some of the other first year anthropology graduate students. Today I went to Student Health to try and fix my weird sinus problem again and will be back to see her in a week. She was a great doctor and very friendly. But everyone here has been friendly so far!
I've also tried two new restaurants this week- both Vietnamese restaurants. Both were excellent, though one was more of a take-out place and the other a very nice sit-down restaurant. It had very attractive furniture.
Oh ho, and the doctor said that I should cut back on CAFFEINE to help my indigestion. That's gonna be a preeetttty tough one, considering coffee is one of my favorite things, period. Plus I'm tired all the time! I will have to find another way to get that kick. One of which I am hoping will be exercise (I've been thinking about this lately, but Anna mentioned it again tonight). I finally got my bike fixed so I think I'm going to start biking! Yeah, I haven't really done it much since childhood, but I enjoyed it then, and this is a super bike friendly town. I will just have to work on getting confident in it again. Perhaps if I mention my hope to start biking here, I will follow through...besides my car hasn't been doing so hot lately...there may be a day when I will have to rely on my bike to get across town!
I am super excited for the Lindsey Stirling concert on Monday (here comes Ripley crawling in my lap- done with playing with Dominic) and so I need to get tons done in the next four days to make myself feel like I deserve a night out.
So, paragraphs later, we realize there is nothing much interesting to report this week. But I did it! My weekly blog. If I figure out a way to charge my camera I will start uploading weekly photos too.
Until next Hump Day...have a great week!
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