Stressed.

So far today, I've managed to water all our plants, scrub/spot clean my carpets, vacuum, sweep, mop, clean out our closet, and clean all three bathrooms. It's 8:45am. Why, oh why, aren't you asleep instead, you ask? I'm feeling a bit...stressed. And when stressed, I tend to become a domestic goddess, steam-cleaning carpets and whipping up fresh-baked bread for the masses. That's just how I deal.

Why am I stressed? Yesterday, addressing my long-running list of errands to run and calls to make, I called over to our littlest kitty's vet to see if they had any product I could use to treat where the cat has been spraying in our house. Despite her being a girl, and being spayed, for whatever reason, she's started to spray ALL OVER THE UPSTAIRS OF MY HOUSE. It's so bad, I've been considering finding her a new home until after the baby's born, assuming that she was 'acting out' due to my pregnancy, since it's started and progressed since then. WRONG. They told me they really thought I should bring her in, and though I put up a fight (the exam alone would be $40), citing her 'asshole behavior', I thought about it and decided to pay the office a visit yesterday afternoon. Thank God I did. I'm apparently the biggest bitch pet-owner in the history of the world. This has been going on for months, with me getting more and more angry and punishing her by putting her out in the garage in isolation. Since it seemed to help initially, it was even further reinforced in my mind that it was behavioral, and I just spent about half my time screaming at her for making me clean our carpets on a daily basis and being generally frustrated. It's not behavioral. It's medical. Poor little darling has a UTI, a kidney infection, blood in her urine (it's not detectable by eye, or of course I would've brought her in), kidney stones, the whole shebang. When the doctor came in to tell me the results of her urinalysis and lab work, I ended up sobbing about how sorry I was and having the vet hug me and assure me that she doesn't think I'm a horrible mother. Awesome. Way to add insult to injury. I just feel SO bad. I had NO idea that there was anything wrong with her - she's always seemed to do it defiantly. Now, she's had a massive shot of pain meds and antibiotics, has to be on a prescription food to dissolve the stones, has twice daily antibiotics for the next three weeks, and is on anti-inflammatory meds that have to be crushed up in her food.

Since then, she now has a new little pet bed, has gotten lots of love and kisses and positive reinforcement, and we have a chocolate cake and a spotless house. Moral of the story: If your cat is spraying, especially if she is an otherwise sweet animal, do not threaten her with a new home. Take her to the vet :(

I'm so sorry, baby kitty!