Taking Care of Ellie-Mae (my twin calico kittens)

The trauma of getting the girls spayed...

The girls are now five months and some days old and it was almost overdue for them to be spayed before they came into puberty. They were only a handful when I brought them with me from New Mexico in late May 2016, but they grew fast and got their shots and were becoming arms full by the time I stuffed them, a little tightly, into the second carrier I had bought because it was larger than the first one. They had outgrown their first carrier and when they are fully grown (so fast, so fast) I'm sure I will have to take them to the vet in separate carriers.

They are a lot bigger than this, now.

But it was time to spay them. Prior to getting their shots and setting up an appointment for their spay, I asked neighbors about vets.My neighbor down the street (Sharon, a wealth of knowledge) recommended two vets. I chose one that was closer to home and more direct. She did say that she thought all the vets in town were good. When I took the girls in for their shots, I was pleased with the staff and the vet herself, and so when I took the girls for their spay, I felt they were in good hands. This is the vet where the military people take their pets, also because the Air Force Base is just a few more miles north of this vet's office.

I took the girls in on Monday, August 22, at 7:30 a.m., and I was able to pick them up after 3:30. And so began a long afternoon, night, and part of the next day when the girls were recovering. They sure slept a lot, and even though in prior posts I have said how it's difficult for me to write and work on my computer at home, I missed them doing that. Now they were zombies. I missed their rambunctious behavior (like walking over the keyboard and sitting on the computer mouse, or blocking my view of the screen because they actually watch the little "bug" that crawls on screen as I move the mouse). I missed them as they slept and sounded like old people recovering from the trachea stress from the anesthesia.

Another shot of the beautiful MUW campus buildings.

But now that it's early afternoon, they've finally started to eat again, but bless them, even in their drunken, drugged state when I first brought them home, they used their "bathroom" facilities like real troopers, even though they had to stagger in there to do it. 

This post is more about me and my little girls than it is about Mississippi, but I do have to say that I'm pleased with the medical facilities for pets, here in Columbus. I'm pleased that my neighbors are accessible for advice and recommendations. I'm pleased with my old house, now 111 years old and still turnkey. I've been blessed with an AC system that works well; otherwise, these summer months with high humidity would probably have been unbearable. But I'm looking forward to the fall and the ability to work longer hours in the yard and to tackle the chaos of roots that run underground in every square inch of the yard, like Medusa's head of snakes. Alas, even when my girls recover and are full-tilt rambunctious again, they will not be able to go into the yard. This is Mississippi, after all, and every kind of insect, including fleas and ticks and mosquitoes, are too much to protect the girls from.

Here's an un-narrated video of Columbus, Mississippi. Now that I've lived here awhile, I recognize so many of these scenes...