Max the cat part 1

My cat has been pretty sick this last year. She is 12 years old and I always considered that as kinda old, but now that I have worked in the vet field the last ten yours I know better. 12 is like a teenager in the feline world.  She should have at least 8 more years of life in her but I am thinking that she might not get those anymore. Max is a cutie pie. She has lots of different names that she has been dubbed over the years (alien baby, Maxi pad, kitty slut). But none the less she seems to be everyone favorite cat of mine. I'll admit that she is chatty, talkative and when she rolls around on her back with her cute petite little meow, it really does make you want to pet her and talk back to her and love her. She knows this though so do not be mistaken and trust me she uses it to her advantage to get all that attention.

I have always joked that Max never really liked me much. It’s not much of a joke if it’s the truth; I see a completely different cat then the rest of you. For me she just sits there across the room, rarely uttering a word, and giving me an evil stare as I move around the house. I don't know what I have done in her little cat brain to deserve such a glare. But I can tell that whatever it is it must be bad. Its hard now for me to keep throwing all this money into saving her life. I would think that least she could do is back off on the glaring at me some. I mean come on cat show me some gratitude.  I mean for 3000 bucks can’t I at least get a cute roll around the dining room table, some snuggle time at night or heck even let me pet ya. But nope I don't get that. I get to chase her around trying to give her pills and have her scratch the hell out of me as I shove em in her mouth. Then just in case it’s not enough that she treats me like this, but the second that the housemate comes out of his room she talks, and talks, and talks, and follows him around like love struck puppy dog! Almost as to throw back into my face her pure hatred of me. Am I jealous? Maybe but honestly, I mean shouldn't I get a little more for my 3000 dollars? I think so. People always say that animals give you gratitude when you save them from a bad situation. In Max's case this isn't even slightly true.

 But maybe it’s because I didn’t really save her from anything.  I got Max form a friend of mine named Jill. I was living in an apartment with my high school friend named Crissy and I had an older cat named Neko. I had started to work really long hours and I was getting the feeling that Neko was lonely. So at some point I started thinking that I should get him a little friend to keep him company. Jill also lived down the street from me and all through high school had many litters of kittens come from out of her house. I happened to see her one day at the store and told her I wanted a kitten. She happened to say that they had a bunch of em ready to go.  I went over to see them that night, with my only requirement being that I wanted a female and that I wanted one that was kind of mellow. I mean Neko was like 8 or so I knew that he wouldn't want a hyper kitten running around bothering him all the time. Anyways I remember there being like 10-11 kittens both black and orange ones and I sat for a really long time trying to pick out the very best one of the bunch. After like 45 minutes I thought I had it all narrowed down and was about to leave with my new kitten in hand when I spotted this orange tabby just laying by itself in a sunbeam alone, like it didn't have a care in the world. This kitten was one that I hadn't seen in my time playing with the kittens, I know because it was a weird whitish milky orange tabby unlike its litter mates who were all dark. I instantly knew that this lone cat, so oblivious to the world outside its sunbeam, who didn't seem to care that for the last 40 minutes someone had been getting all its litter mates to run and play, it was just so content to lay here in the sun and take a nap. I knew right then that no matter what the sex was this was my kitten. I put down the black kitten I had already picked out and scooped it up and was happy to discover it was indeed a female, I brought her home.  She got the name Max. What I didn't know then as an 18 year old but know now from being in the vet world, was that she was born with a raging case of feline herpes, (this is common for cattery situations, and that is what my neighbor had going on) also that orange tabby female cats are an extremely rare thing. So she became even more special after learning that.  Too bad that as mellow as she was in that sunbeam it didn’t carry over once she was in my house or around Neko. Max turned out to be quite the little bully. But I’ll save the rest of that story for another time.  

At this moment I am due to chase her around and find where she is hiding and force her to take her pills. It’s the worst part of my day. But it’s what is keeping her alive and if nothing else, even after how much she seems to despise me, I really do want to keep her alive.  So I’ll keep doing it no matter how long I have to because that’s what you have to do when you get a pet. You have to do everything in your power to keep em alive.