A New Hairdo for Zeus

Will Rogers says if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. That is very valuable to remember!

The twinges in my low back started on Sunday, in anticipation of going to Joel’s overnight to take Zeus, Joel’s male cat, to the vet for de-matting of his fur (under sedation).

Zeus with his severely matted fur.

Zeus needed to have nothing to eat after midnight, and no water after 6:00 am, and he needed to be at the vet office about 7:45 am. The overnight made the most sense, but I could feel the tension building. By the time I left for Kalamazoo, my low back was so ouchy, I was not sure that I would be able to carry my laptop into the house.

As it turned out, I may as well not have brought it because when I got into the bedroom in the lower level, I realized I had no Wifi available. At 8:15 pm I crawled in to bed without any of my usual distractions: no music, no email, no videos, no podcasts. Just an aggressively affectionate McGee who was letting me know August 2021 is a long time from November 2019, the last time I had shared the downstairs overnight with her.

It was more challenging than I had imagined to get an 18-pound-formerly-feral-and-terrified cat into the “Pet Taxi.” I began barking orders like a drill sergeant. Fortunately, Joel had been in the army, and he was able to assist. I could not have done it without him….

The entire drive was punctuated with mournful meowing. It sounded just like Zeus was saying, “OUT…. OUT…. O-U-T….”

Admittedly, Zeus was not alone in his stressful emotions; I also cried during his check-in process.

Just before 2:00 pm, I spoke with Dr. Christine Williamson. She is amazing. She said Zeus did great, and she commented on what a wonderful guy he is. She did not do a full lion-cut, but was able to trim out all of the severe matting and leave his fur intact on the rest of his body.

Here is Zeus with his new hairdo.

While there, they did routine blood work, and everything looks good. His glucose level was high, but that could have been from stress. Probably a good thing they did not check my glucose level….

A shout out to Dr. Williamson and everyone at Mattawan Animal Hospital.

Joel went with me to pick Zeus up, and although Zeus was still meowing, on the drive home I swear he was saying, “Home…. Home…. H-O-M-E….”

As anticipated, it was much easier to get him out of the pet carrier! And his beautiful fur will fill back in.

Here is Zeus before his fur was matted.

That brings me back to Will Rogers.

Anticipatory stress is much worse than the experience….