Thank you all for your purrs.

We got to see Dr. Dan yesterday (usually we see Dr. Chris).  Dr. Dan
is about as big and boisterous as Brando himself.

We had to get there via bus, and it was Brando's first bus adventure.
DH had to come along to carry Brando, since he is 14-3/4 lbs. worth of
cat.  Brando was not happy, being a former feral and not all that
social, in particular with large groups of strangers in a big, loud,
bumpy vehicle.  But he decided he would make the best of it by
rustling around the newspapers and finding a way to hide his head
underneath some of it.

Dr. Dan checked him out and, except for his teeth, pronounced him
rather fit from the exam side of things.  He wanted bloodwork, to be
sure he is healthy enough to go under anesthesia and get a dental (and
he needs it *BADLY*).  He wasn't sure what the
coughing/phlegm/hoarseness was about, but bronchitis is a good guess.
Brando went through the indignity of getting his temperature taken,
getting some fur shaved and blood drawn, and getting a penicillin shot
to hopefully deal with whatever bug might be running around in him.
Dr. Dan said he "was a perfect gentleman" during the blood draw and
shot.

Brando got a little more used to the Big Noisy Moving Thing on the way
back.  He even poked his head out of his newspaper hidey-hole long
enough to allow a fellow passenger and cat person to see him and say
hello.  We thought we may have a loooooonnnngggg wait at first, as our
last bus got stuck trying to let down the wheelchair lift for a
gentleman in a wheelchair.  The entire thing was stuck, meaning no one
could go anywhere. The bus driver actually turned off the bus and
turned it back on; that was a first for me to see.  Still didn't work.
The guy in the chair was a mellow sort, and just said "Aw, go on. I'll
wait for the next one. I needed time for a cigarette anyway."  So we
all piled on, Brando included, and made it home.

Got a call from Dr. Chris today, and his bloodwork looks great.  So I
will schedule a dental next week.  Dr. Dan thinks any problems Brando
is having are probably all due to the state of his poor little teeth
and gums, so he should be in great shape when that is done.  I will,
of course, be a nervous wreck.   He is 9 years old, but at least it
looks like he is doing pretty well for all that.

Thank you all again, and I will probably be asking for purrs again
when he goes in for the dental!

Ginger-lyn

Home Pages:
 http://www.spiritrealm.com/summer/
 http://www.angelfire.com/folk/glsummer (homepage & cats)
 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~summer/index.htm (genealogy)
 http://www.movieanimals.bravehost.com/ (The Violence Against
                        Animals in Movies Website)