The Tooth Fairy

I love my cat. I love my cat. I love my cat. Do you think that if I repeat it often enough, it will come true? Or at least make me grumble about her less?

Not long ago I was waxing poetic (literally) about my new feline. I adored her. Until I took her to the vet for a checkup that is.

It turns out that my feline is like my dad. They both suffer from bad teeth. My dad's had practically all of his teeth replaced/repaired/removed at one time or another.

That's right, the vet told me that my cat needed teeth pulled. He could see that at least one fang had to be removed, and he guestimated that another would probably have to go too. Since it was either pay the money for removal now, or pay the money for removal + antibiotics for whatever infections she'd get, I opted to have the tooth fair visit her sooner rather than later.


Now, as a Canadian, I have very little experience with medical quotes/bills. Therefore you can imagine my shock (and horror) that to get 2 teeth extracted from a cat's mouth was going to cost me $900!!! Holy effing Christ! Can't a pair of pliers do the same job??? It seems the answer is no, because vets insist upon anesthesia, pain meds, blood work, etc.

When I took Nix into the vets, I must admit that I felt like a guilty mommy. But it was for the best. I was allowed to take her home essentially the next day. It turns out that she needed 3 teeth removed, as well as a shard of a previously broken tooth.

When I went to pick her up from the vets, I told them, "Hi there, I'm here to pick up my gap-toothed cat!" It took them a moment to understand the joke but chuckled eventually.

After the experience, I kept threatening to rename Nix to be "Gap" (in honor of her missing fang) or "Patch" in honor of the shaved patch of fur where the IV was during her surgery.

Meet Nix!

On Thursday, my family received the following poem in their inboxes:

I wished and wanted, whimpered and whined

Finally I’m getting what should have always been mine.

She was a rogue before being brought to the shelter.

In her heart she just yearned for a kind adopter.

They’ve kept her and nurtured her since March fifteen

But now she’s got a real home, she’s coming home with me!

They named her Helen, but we all know

That no one should be named after a giant sow.

So I’m gracing her with a new name of “Nix”.

The “Goddess of the night” was the best of picks.

So please take a moment to say it with me,

“Welcome to Nix, the newest member of our family!”

I adopted a cat! I've wanted one for a long long long time, but I knew I couldn't take care of one because I didn't have an easy way of getting kitty litter and food to and from my various apartments. And then, when I moved back to KW, I finally got a car, but my lease had a "no cats allowed" clause. However, when my friend Alyssa moved in downstairs, she brought two cats with her, and my landlady decided to allow me to get one too.

I visited the KW Humane Society's page multiple times, torturing myself, but then I came across Nix's picture. She looked so regal and pretty that I was instantly in love. That love was cemented when I visited her at the shelter. She's five years old, but still surprisingly playful.

We're still in the process of learning each other's quirks. When I adopted her, the shelter staff warned me that she needed a special diet, and that she'd be picky about what she ate. Anxious to take care of her, I immediately rushed out to buy some special "sensitive" stomach food for her. In this case, "special" also translates to "expensive" - and boy does she like the stuff! I hope that I can wean her on to a cheaper brand, but at least I know her stomach isn't going to explode anytime soon.

Another of her weird quirks is that she likes to kick her litter into one corner of her box. Who knows why? I don't care because at least it's staying inside the box. :)

And today I discovered that my new ward is also an opiate addict. I bought a bag of catnip in an attempt to encourage her to use her scratching post (she seems to prefer my apartment's carpets thus far... :( ) And wow. The reaction to the weed was instantaneous. I was laughing as she rolled around and essentially melted into a puddle fur.