gah. Santiago gave me a scare just now. well, in the last hour. he woke me up at 6:30, huddling on top of my legs and shivering so I thought geez is it that cold out there and so I got out of my chair bed (I was under a snug blanket) to check the ambient temperature and it was a bit nippy so I go to turn the heat on and the pilot light is out!

with some fiddling I get the pilot light lit and turn the heat on. is the problem solved yet? well, the cat's dishes are empty. I better refill them. how about now? I heated up the canned food and everything but Santiago was not interested in his food! I thought oh crap what's wrong.



then he gives a mournful mrooow before throwing up a big old puddle of whatever: plant material, some food, the foamy liquid stuff that comes out of cats sometimes. ok he does that occasionally and usually whatever was bugging him comes up and that's that. but he's still walking all hunched up and with tail twitching madly, won't purr--I grab him and palpate his bladder (this is the guy that cost me my last 2K a year and a half ago with a blocked urethra) and it is moderately small and soft so I don't think that's the problem. I give it a little squeeze just to try to make him want to pee but he just walks back in by his litterbox and sits in front of it looking uncomfortable.

what?? shit what is wrong with my cat I don't have any money.

but so I come in here to look up the SFSPCA's policy on pet owners without money and it seems that they will probably provide emergency services either gratis or for a negotiated payment plan but as I'm reading the site Santiago comes walking in, jumps on the cat tree and across to the top shelf of my little entertainment/office complex. ok if he's doing that he can't be in too bad a shape.

he's up there for about a minute and then comes back down and jumps in my lap and starts to purr. he's been trying to sit on my laptop because it is warm but I keep trying to hold him in my lap instead but he doesn't like sitting on me while I'm at the computer. I don't know why. he seems to prefer cuddling up next to my legs where I rest them on my little cube footstool under my desk (I have to have my feet up when I'm sitting. not because anything is wrong with my feet, but because for as long as I can remember sitting with my legs down has been much more uncomfortable than sitting with them up. I wonder what sort of weird sensory issue that is about).

well right now he is back on the top shelf, probably because the livingroom heater has been on for 45 minutes and my space heater also so I suspect it is warm up there.

crap. he'd better be ok. he did go and eat a few bites and he's keeping it down. so I don't know if he just ate something that didn't agree with him or what. I'll be watching him like a hawk--or a mother bear--for the rest of the morning. please do send good cat health vibes! I'd be devastated if anything happened to either of them. Santiago is especially good at invoking emergencies though and I hate hate hate taking them to the vet. they hate it, I hate that they hate it, and I have no transportation other than bus or feet so it is not easy to get them much more than a few blocks away. fortunately the SPCA is only a few blocks away. but he's ok, right? be ok, cat!

::prays to bast::