Episode Five:
The Vet
My plan to go on an adventure with Lily was much more easily said than done. When I shared my idea with her, she immediately pointed out the biggest flaw. “You’ve never been outside, so you don’t know how far you’ll have to walk before you find the ocean,” she explained. “I can’t survive for very long without being in water, so it could be dangerous for you to bring me out there without knowing exactly how to get to the ocean and how long it will take to get there.
“Why can’t you survive for very long outside of water?” I asked.
“Water’s how I breathe,” she explained. “Fish and cats and people all need to breathe oxygen, which is in both air and water. But cats and people use their noses to breathe in the air, and then they have something called lungs inside their bodies to help separate the oxygen from the stuff they don’t need. Fish don’t have lungs; we have gills instead.” She swam closer to the wall of the bowl and turned so that her side was facing me. “Do you see the little slits behind my eyes?”
I leaned in close and stared. Yes, I could see exactly what she was talking about. Tiny little flaps in her side, about where her neck would be if she had one. “Yeah, I see them!” I told her. “Those are like your nose?”
“Not exactly,” she replied, swishing away and then coming back to face me. “I breathe through my mouth by gulping in water. Then the water travels through my gills, which separate the oxygen that I do need from the other stuff that I don’t. The other stuff comes out the gills.”
“Wow,” I said admiringly. “You’re really smart. How do you know all this stuff?”
“I heard someone explaining it to a kid at the place I used to live, the place with all the other fish,” she responded. “It just kind of stuck with me. I like learning new things.”
“Me too,” I agreed, starting to purr.
A pair of hands grabbed me around the middle. I freaked out and started squirming to get away.
“Calm down, Tiger; it’s just me,” said Mom, stroking the side of my head. “Huh, it’s almost as if he knows where we’re taking him.”
“Of course he does,” came Abigail’s voice from behind Mom and me. “You just said, ‘It’s time to take Tiger to the vet.’”
The vet? “Noooooooo!” I howled, squirming harder. “I don’t want to go to the vet! Put me down! PUT ME DOWN!”
I was screaming so loudly that I almost missed Lily’s quiet, worried voice asking, “What’s the vet?”
Dad came over with the cat carrier, and Mom plopped me inside. They shut the door and set the carrier down on the counter. At least I was still facing Lily.
“The vet,” I growled, “is a sequence of horrible events that I’ve experienced a few times before. First, Mom and Dad stuff me in this little cage thing, and then they bring me out to the car. Then, the car starts moving so fast that everything out the windows gets blurry, and I feel like I’m going to throw up. Sometimes I do throw up. Then, we go into this place where they let me out of the cage and a stranger touches me and looks at me and sometimes sticks needles in me. And the place always smells weird, and is full of other cats and dogs complaining about how they don’t want to be there.”
“Hmmm,” said Lily. “But after that you get to come back home?”
“Well, yes,” I admitted. “After all that pointless uncomfortable stuff happens.”
“Well, I can think of one good thing about you going to the vet today,” said Lily.
I gave her a skeptical look. “What’s that?”
“You’ll get to look around for an ocean! Because you’ll be outside, right?”
I thought about that. “I won’t be outside outside, because I’ll be in the car, but… I guess I could try to look for an ocean.” Hopefully we wouldn’t be moving too fast.
“Oooh yes, yes!” Lily exclaimed excitedly. “Please try to look for an ocean! And remember to pay attention to how long it takes to get there, so you’ll know for our adventure.”
I didn’t get a chance to say anything more, because at that moment someone picked the carrier up and started bringing me toward the door. The moment the door opened, I was blasted by Outside air, which is different from regular, inside air. I get to smell it sometimes when the windows are open in the house. It smells good, most of the time, although it can also be a little overwhelming because of all the different animal scents out there.
Today there was a strong scent of Big Brown Dog. Big Brown Dog lives across the street, and I’ve seen him running around sometimes in his front yard. I felt my fur fluff up on my back and tail. If Big Brown Dog got too close to Abigail, I’d have to smash my way out of the cat carrier to protect her!
“Hey! Cat!” Big Brown Dog was still safely over in his yard, but he was talking to me. “Where are you going?”
“To the vet,” I told him. “Make sure you stay over there on your side of the street.”
“Oh don’t worry, I will,” he said, cringing at the word vet. “There’s no way I want to chance being brought there. Good luck.” He actually sounded kind of sympathetic.
Dad put my carrier in the backseat of the car, next to Abigail. This was good, because I love being near Abigail, but also kind of a problem, because he put me facing Abigail, which meant I couldn’t see out the window very well. “Hey,” I said. “Can you guys please move me to a place with a better view out the windows?”
“It’s okay, Tiger,” Abigail reassured me, sticking her fingers in through the bars of the carrier door. “It’s okay, buddy. The car ride won’t be too long.”
I kept asking about the windows, even once the car started moving and picking up speed, but no one was listening. Eventually I stopped asking, because the motion was already making me sick, and I knew that looking out the windows at all the blurred scenery would make things even worse.
When the car came to a stop, Dad picked up my carrier and took me out of the car. I shrank back, suddenly glad I was in a carrier because the smells were just so weird and unfamiliar. They made me feel a little nervous.
Then I smelled something that made me perk up. Water! A lot of it! I looked everywhere I could, turning around and around in the carrier to see out all the tiny little windows. And then I saw it. A big green patch of water, surrounded by grass. That must be the ocean! I thought excitedly. Wait till I tell Lily I found it!
Dad, Mom, and Abigail walked into the building, bringing me with them. We had to sit in a big room with a bunch of other people and animals for a little bit, and then we went into a smaller room with just one person. Mom opened the door of the cat carrier for me, but I’m no fool. I stayed inside, bunched up in the very back.
“Come on out, Tiger,” urged the stranger.
I hissed at him.
“Tiger!” exclaimed Abigail. “That’s not very nice. Come on out; the vet just wants to check up on you and make sure you’re healthy.”
Abigail. Abigail was out there, and it was my job to protect her. I fluffed myself up to look as big as possible, then prowled out of the carrier.
“Oh my!” exclaimed the vet. “I can see why you named him Tiger. He does look like a tiger!”
Of course I look like a tiger, I thought. I am a tiger.
The vet stood me up on a shiny flat surface, and gave me some sort of weird belly rub. Then he put his fingers near my mouth (not a very smart move) and started looking at all my teeth. I gave a low, warning growl, indicating that I would bite him if he tried to hurt me or my family.
But he didn’t. He finished checking me over, and eventually I got to go back into the carrier. I went in gladly this time, because it meant it was time to go home.
“That wasn’t too bad, was it, Tiger?” Abigail asked as the car started moving again. She reached her fingers in through the openings in the carrier’s door again. “Mom, Dad, I’m hungry. And I think Tiger is too. Can we get something to eat on the way home?”
“Sure,” said Dad. “Chick-fil-A’s right down the road; how about we stop there?”
The car pulled to a stop a few minutes later, and I thought we were home at first, but it turned out that we were just at a place where people get food. The air smelled amazing, especially when Mom passed some food back to Abigail. I pressed my nose up against the door of the cat carrier, wanting to get closer so I could smell it better and maybe take a bite.
“Here you go, Tiger,” said Abigail, pushing something through one of the many small holes in the carrier door. “Try a chicken nugget.”
I bent down excitedly and licked the little piece of chicken. It was hot, but it tasted delicious. So much better than cat food!
When I was done eating the whole thing, Abigail gave me another piece of a chicken nugget, and then held something white and creamy up to the door of the cat carrier. “Do you wanna try the ice cream too?” she asked.
In response, I slipped my tongue through one of the holes and licked it. Mmmm. Like milk--a rare treat that I occasionally get to have--but creamier and colder.
I took a few more tastes of ice cream before I retreated to the back of the carrier, where I curled up and tried to fall asleep. I wasn’t feeling as sick as I had been on the way to the vet, but the constant motion of the car was making my stomach churn a little.
As I settled in, I remembered the exciting news I was going to get to tell Lily. I’d found the ocean! One day, soon, we’d begin our adventure. And maybe we’d make a stop at Chick-fil-A on our way to the ocean.
I slipped into a dream about me picking Lily up out of her bowl, slipping out the front door of our house, and running down the street. Chick-fil-A appeared in front of us, and I ran inside and grabbed a plate full of chicken nuggets and another plate full of ice cream. Then I ran down the street a little more, and saw the ocean. I jumped in, bringing Lily and all the food with me. Lily and I swam around and ate the food, sharing it with all the blue fish.
“Why can’t you survive for very long outside of water?” I asked.
“Water’s how I breathe,” she explained. “Fish and cats and people all need to breathe oxygen, which is in both air and water. But cats and people use their noses to breathe in the air, and then they have something called lungs inside their bodies to help separate the oxygen from the stuff they don’t need. Fish don’t have lungs; we have gills instead.” She swam closer to the wall of the bowl and turned so that her side was facing me. “Do you see the little slits behind my eyes?”
I leaned in close and stared. Yes, I could see exactly what she was talking about. Tiny little flaps in her side, about where her neck would be if she had one. “Yeah, I see them!” I told her. “Those are like your nose?”
“Not exactly,” she replied, swishing away and then coming back to face me. “I breathe through my mouth by gulping in water. Then the water travels through my gills, which separate the oxygen that I do need from the other stuff that I don’t. The other stuff comes out the gills.”
“Wow,” I said admiringly. “You’re really smart. How do you know all this stuff?”
“I heard someone explaining it to a kid at the place I used to live, the place with all the other fish,” she responded. “It just kind of stuck with me. I like learning new things.”
“Me too,” I agreed, starting to purr.
A pair of hands grabbed me around the middle. I freaked out and started squirming to get away.
“Calm down, Tiger; it’s just me,” said Mom, stroking the side of my head. “Huh, it’s almost as if he knows where we’re taking him.”
“Of course he does,” came Abigail’s voice from behind Mom and me. “You just said, ‘It’s time to take Tiger to the vet.’”
The vet? “Noooooooo!” I howled, squirming harder. “I don’t want to go to the vet! Put me down! PUT ME DOWN!”
I was screaming so loudly that I almost missed Lily’s quiet, worried voice asking, “What’s the vet?”
Dad came over with the cat carrier, and Mom plopped me inside. They shut the door and set the carrier down on the counter. At least I was still facing Lily.
“The vet,” I growled, “is a sequence of horrible events that I’ve experienced a few times before. First, Mom and Dad stuff me in this little cage thing, and then they bring me out to the car. Then, the car starts moving so fast that everything out the windows gets blurry, and I feel like I’m going to throw up. Sometimes I do throw up. Then, we go into this place where they let me out of the cage and a stranger touches me and looks at me and sometimes sticks needles in me. And the place always smells weird, and is full of other cats and dogs complaining about how they don’t want to be there.”
“Hmmm,” said Lily. “But after that you get to come back home?”
“Well, yes,” I admitted. “After all that pointless uncomfortable stuff happens.”
“Well, I can think of one good thing about you going to the vet today,” said Lily.
I gave her a skeptical look. “What’s that?”
“You’ll get to look around for an ocean! Because you’ll be outside, right?”
I thought about that. “I won’t be outside outside, because I’ll be in the car, but… I guess I could try to look for an ocean.” Hopefully we wouldn’t be moving too fast.
“Oooh yes, yes!” Lily exclaimed excitedly. “Please try to look for an ocean! And remember to pay attention to how long it takes to get there, so you’ll know for our adventure.”
I didn’t get a chance to say anything more, because at that moment someone picked the carrier up and started bringing me toward the door. The moment the door opened, I was blasted by Outside air, which is different from regular, inside air. I get to smell it sometimes when the windows are open in the house. It smells good, most of the time, although it can also be a little overwhelming because of all the different animal scents out there.
Today there was a strong scent of Big Brown Dog. Big Brown Dog lives across the street, and I’ve seen him running around sometimes in his front yard. I felt my fur fluff up on my back and tail. If Big Brown Dog got too close to Abigail, I’d have to smash my way out of the cat carrier to protect her!
“Hey! Cat!” Big Brown Dog was still safely over in his yard, but he was talking to me. “Where are you going?”
“To the vet,” I told him. “Make sure you stay over there on your side of the street.”
“Oh don’t worry, I will,” he said, cringing at the word vet. “There’s no way I want to chance being brought there. Good luck.” He actually sounded kind of sympathetic.
Dad put my carrier in the backseat of the car, next to Abigail. This was good, because I love being near Abigail, but also kind of a problem, because he put me facing Abigail, which meant I couldn’t see out the window very well. “Hey,” I said. “Can you guys please move me to a place with a better view out the windows?”
“It’s okay, Tiger,” Abigail reassured me, sticking her fingers in through the bars of the carrier door. “It’s okay, buddy. The car ride won’t be too long.”
I kept asking about the windows, even once the car started moving and picking up speed, but no one was listening. Eventually I stopped asking, because the motion was already making me sick, and I knew that looking out the windows at all the blurred scenery would make things even worse.
When the car came to a stop, Dad picked up my carrier and took me out of the car. I shrank back, suddenly glad I was in a carrier because the smells were just so weird and unfamiliar. They made me feel a little nervous.
Then I smelled something that made me perk up. Water! A lot of it! I looked everywhere I could, turning around and around in the carrier to see out all the tiny little windows. And then I saw it. A big green patch of water, surrounded by grass. That must be the ocean! I thought excitedly. Wait till I tell Lily I found it!
Dad, Mom, and Abigail walked into the building, bringing me with them. We had to sit in a big room with a bunch of other people and animals for a little bit, and then we went into a smaller room with just one person. Mom opened the door of the cat carrier for me, but I’m no fool. I stayed inside, bunched up in the very back.
“Come on out, Tiger,” urged the stranger.
I hissed at him.
“Tiger!” exclaimed Abigail. “That’s not very nice. Come on out; the vet just wants to check up on you and make sure you’re healthy.”
Abigail. Abigail was out there, and it was my job to protect her. I fluffed myself up to look as big as possible, then prowled out of the carrier.
“Oh my!” exclaimed the vet. “I can see why you named him Tiger. He does look like a tiger!”
Of course I look like a tiger, I thought. I am a tiger.
The vet stood me up on a shiny flat surface, and gave me some sort of weird belly rub. Then he put his fingers near my mouth (not a very smart move) and started looking at all my teeth. I gave a low, warning growl, indicating that I would bite him if he tried to hurt me or my family.
But he didn’t. He finished checking me over, and eventually I got to go back into the carrier. I went in gladly this time, because it meant it was time to go home.
“That wasn’t too bad, was it, Tiger?” Abigail asked as the car started moving again. She reached her fingers in through the openings in the carrier’s door again. “Mom, Dad, I’m hungry. And I think Tiger is too. Can we get something to eat on the way home?”
“Sure,” said Dad. “Chick-fil-A’s right down the road; how about we stop there?”
The car pulled to a stop a few minutes later, and I thought we were home at first, but it turned out that we were just at a place where people get food. The air smelled amazing, especially when Mom passed some food back to Abigail. I pressed my nose up against the door of the cat carrier, wanting to get closer so I could smell it better and maybe take a bite.
“Here you go, Tiger,” said Abigail, pushing something through one of the many small holes in the carrier door. “Try a chicken nugget.”
I bent down excitedly and licked the little piece of chicken. It was hot, but it tasted delicious. So much better than cat food!
When I was done eating the whole thing, Abigail gave me another piece of a chicken nugget, and then held something white and creamy up to the door of the cat carrier. “Do you wanna try the ice cream too?” she asked.
In response, I slipped my tongue through one of the holes and licked it. Mmmm. Like milk--a rare treat that I occasionally get to have--but creamier and colder.
I took a few more tastes of ice cream before I retreated to the back of the carrier, where I curled up and tried to fall asleep. I wasn’t feeling as sick as I had been on the way to the vet, but the constant motion of the car was making my stomach churn a little.
As I settled in, I remembered the exciting news I was going to get to tell Lily. I’d found the ocean! One day, soon, we’d begin our adventure. And maybe we’d make a stop at Chick-fil-A on our way to the ocean.
I slipped into a dream about me picking Lily up out of her bowl, slipping out the front door of our house, and running down the street. Chick-fil-A appeared in front of us, and I ran inside and grabbed a plate full of chicken nuggets and another plate full of ice cream. Then I ran down the street a little more, and saw the ocean. I jumped in, bringing Lily and all the food with me. Lily and I swam around and ate the food, sharing it with all the blue fish.
