Oops, forgot to post about this earlier. But Licky had another
episode over the weekend of straining to pee, or at least, that's
how it looked to me. He kept going into the box and just standing
there for 15 or 20 seconds. I would hear nothing (and at the times
when he used the open box, I would see nothing), so apparently it
was not fruitful. By the way, this was happening at 3:30 AM on
Saturday night/early Sunday morning. I had just gotten home from
seeing a movie, going out for a late snack and talking for 2 hours,
and then having my car run out of gas and waiting for another hour
for the auto club to show up. And it's a good thing all that
happened, because that meant I was awake to see him doing this.

So I called the all-night emergency vet, and they said "bring
him in right now". I did, and they checked him out and said he
wasn't blocked, but that he was going to need a urinalysis (sp?).
I decided that, since it wasn't an emergency, I'd have that done
at his regular vet.

My job makes it very difficult to deal with logistics such as
taking a cat to the vet, but these vets are very reasonable and
helpful, and they let me drop him off in the morning (ie, this
morning). I just called them about 45 minutes ago to see how he
was doing, but they haven't been able to get a sterile sample
from him yet, so they haven't yet been able to test for infection.

My poor guy, stuck at the Evil Place all day. And even worse,
because this place closes much, much earlier than I can get back
there to pick him up (I'm about a 45-minute drive from there, so
I'd have to leave work hours early to get there before they
close), I have to leave him there overnight, and go back to pick
him up tomorrow morning. Luckily, their boarding charge is not
very expensive.

I hope after all this that they find out what's causing him to
strain!

Joyce