Look who’s back!
Saturday afternoon – after I’d been to the pet store and filled out the paperwork to adopt Tom Cullen née Barrett/ Bear – the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID (I ALWAYS look at the caller ID) and saw the name of the shelter I volunteer for.
When I answered, it was the shelter manager. She told me that Sugarbutt (only she called him “Sad Eyes”, since that’s his real name and all) had been adopted Friday night, and the guy who’d adopted him brought him back to the petstore because he was dripping blood from his butt. The adoption counselor working that day took him over to the vet, and that’s where he was currently, and the manager wanted to know if I could take him once the vet was done with him.
OF COURSE. I mean, I know that I’d agreed with Fred that we wouldn’t have any fosters ’til Tom Cullen got older, but I still consider myself Sugarbutt’s foster mother (and the one who loves him more than anyone in the whole wide world), and I didn’t even hesitate before I told her I definitely would.
Didn’t even check with Fred. But he understood and didn’t even think of giving me a hard time about it.
So I went to the vet’s around six (the adoption counselor/ shelter co-manager had called and told me he’d probably be ready around six), and ended up waiting until almost 7:00, because the vet was so backed up and trying to get caught up. It turned out that there was a lot of bacteria in his fecal sample and the vet said that it looked to her like coccydia, but they hadn’t found any coccydia in the sample. They gave me antibiotics to give him, and then brought him out, and I was so thrilled to see him I practically ran in place.
(The woman working the front desk went on and on about what a sweetheart he was. And I kept squealing “I KNOW! He’s so sweet, isn’t he?”)
I called Fred on the way home to get the kitten room ready for Sugarbutt, and when I got home with him, Fred took him right up to the room. When we let him out of the carrier, we had a ten-minute discussion as to whether or not it was really Sugarbutt, because I SWEAR he had grown in the four days since we’d last seen him, and he seemed darker than we remembered. Once I got a good look at his face, though, I knew for sure it was him. I swear he got bigger, even though the paper from the vet said that he weighed exactly the same as the last time he was there. He’s longer and has less of a pot belly, I swear he does.
And, because I couldn’t bear to have him in the room alone with only sporadic visits from us, we put Tom Cullen back in the room with him and we’re giving him a prophylactic dose of Albon so he doesn’t come down with Coccydia too. They seem happy, though they do try to sneak out every time I open the door.
PS: I have yet to see anything like blood on Sugarbutt’s butt. I’m not sure what was going on, but apparently it passed.
“Hey! Who’s the new guy? He seems really familiar!”
Such a sweet boy.
“Me. And my. Shaaaaaaaaadow! Strolling down the ave. uh. nooooo.”
I adore this picture. It’s a good one of him. Also, CRAZY EYES!
Video! It’s Tom Cullen in the grass, with Spanky. You can tell he doesn’t like the feel of the grass under his toes, but he’s so curious about all the smells that he can’t help but walk around on the grass.