Prayer answered and an amusing observation

I'd been trying to ignore my worry over Simba's first vet visit. Though he seemed healthy, I know that feline HIV and feline leukemia are silent, deadly killers of cats of all ages. I was secretly scared out of my socks that my kids' first pet experience would be a lesson in loss.

Since we adopted our new kitty on a Saturday, I knew that his first vet visit would have to wait until (I thought) Tuesday, because of the holiday. Before we brought him home, they suggested we buy some Advantage flea control and apply it because all shelter animals could possibly have fleas. They were not sure, however, if he was old enough. Well, with all the scares about babies and toddlers being accidentally overdosed on cold meds, I certainly didn't want to accidentally overdose my kitten - whose behavior I don't know well enough to know when it's not normal. So I held off on it. But Monday morning I was brushing him, and I saw it....AAAACK! A spot that moved - oh, no - he did have fleas!

Rather panicked now, over both the house and the cat, I called the vet's office hoping maybe they had some sort of emergency hotline (hey, the pediatrician does so it was worth a check.) To my utter relief, a real person answered the phone, and they were open, and I could bring him in that afternoon.

I took him in, hoping for the best news, mentally preparing for the worst. And guess what? Amazingly, though he was in the shelter for 4 days and who knows where before that, he's healthy! All his tests were clean, all his little internal organs healthy. Those few pesky fleas were the only thing wrong. (Thank you, God.)

BIG sigh of relief! He got his flea treatment, and last night Chris and Charlotte got to be fascinated and amused while we gave the cat a good flea combing. Oh, what a happy cat he was! At one point, while combing his tummy, he went so boneless with pleasure he would let me move his legs all around to reach everywhere and didn't once try to claw us.

What was hysterical was last night, while I was simultaneously trying to wash all our bedding and Brian was vacuuming AND we were trying to get dinner on - the 2 oldest were whining about being hungry and the little one was underfoot crying..... but the CAT had used the litterbox, fed himSELF, and was now snoozing contentedly underneath the computer desk.

And I was worried that the cat would be too much trouble....hmmmm.