Verizon Date and the complicated Cat

So... if you told me three years ago going to Verizon to buy a cell phone could be a "date", I would have laughed in your face.  But as parents of a toddler, I did rather enjoy that time sitting at Verizon with my husband (while my in-laws watched our son).  We did end our "date" with a trip to a new Hibachi place in town (where we wouldn't normally be able to go because of our food allergy worries).  It was nice just spending some kid-free time (as much as we both love our kid).  The Verizon lady was also amused when as she apologized for the wait, I told her this was our "date".  As we left the store, she said, "Hope you had a great date night at Verizon".  Life is always interesting as a parent...

When my husband and I got married, my parents gave us a backpack/picnic kit, which pretty much as soon as I got pregnant, we realized we would probably not use, at least not for a long time...  Due to the change in my schedule and a new flexibility that I didn't have when I wasn't an independent contractor, we are going to be able to take our son out to a picnic concert tonight.  They are doing Brazillan jazz and the place has a huge water fountain.  Hopefully this experience will be a hit based on the fact that my son tonight said, "Thank you Jesus, for water fountains" (unprompted : )  I'm very excited that we will get an opportunity to go to this free entertainment in my area, which I have wanted to go to since I moved here over 5 years ago (at that time I believe I had envisioned a romantic date with the man of my dreams).  Now I get to share a fun date with the man and son of my dreams : )  Now if we can just find that backpack we thought we would never use...

Our cat Duchess has been showing more signs of arthritis (and probably doesn't help when the 2 year old puts his hands on her and says, "Ride Duchess?"  I decided the injections I had been giving her were not enough, so called up my favorite compounding pharmacy.  (Compounding pharmacies are places where they compound, or make medication into different formats, such as liquid, treats, flavored pills, etc.)  I called them up hoping they could make a pain medication (my favorite for cats) into a tasty, crunchy treat.  The pharmacist, (humored that I was both vet and owner and also humored that I used to live in Arizona, had a Michigan phone number and now live on the East Coast) told me that a crunchy treat was probably not going to work.  I asked, "what if you put a really small amount in the crunchy treat?", his response, "It's so bitter, even a small amount won't work, and if she's even a remotely smart cat, she'd figure it out in a day or two."  I told him, "Unfortunately she's not remotely smart, she's crazy smart."  He recommended liquid medication (which I had tried with a different medication for my cat two years ago, even in her favorite flavor).  I told him that lasted less than two days with her and it took me weeks to repair our relationship after that.  I then asked him about something called transdermal.  This is where you have a syringe and you actually just put a tiny amount on the ear and it absorbs through the skin.  It has been shown to be somewhat effective for thyroid medication.  The pharmacist said, "well, that's creative, there's no studies on its effectiveness."  I told him it was worth a try, as that was probably the only hope I would have for medicating her.  He said, "fine, if you want your own kitty to be your guinea pig."  I told him the worst that would happen would be it wouldn't work and I'd be out of some money, but I was confident if it became a battle of wills of shoving a pill or liquid down her throat, I would be out of money AND have an angry cat.  I'd take the risk.  I'll keep you posted, so far, so good : )