So Pure, So Here's Your Future

I've got to hand it to RAI International News: these guys can frame a shot like nobody's business. I'm watching a report about what looks like a car bomb in Beirut. Young men play street games with the still-flaming tires. Nobody looks distressed or surprised in any way. The reporter narrates. Finally we see him standing in front of a stately, up-lighted government building in healthy bronzes, cream and probably pink stone. Palm trees sway in the night breezes, as they have throughout the ages. The sky above and behind is a star-flecked midnight blue. The reporter could be talking about sewage backing up into an orphanage and I would still stare at my teevee and sigh. Sometimes, beauty blinds me. Sometimes, I am just blind.

The weekend left me in a shambles. Though I'm still Beautifying America One Room At A Time!(tm) out of sheer habit - and how could I not? - I look awful. My apartment was a wreck. Last night, I started putting things away and cleaning up a bit. Today, I started putting me back together. My mustache is Naired. A load of laundry hangs up to dry. I've called all kinds of people to thank them for their help and have half a dozen more calls to make. I'm noshing on celery, doing crunches, downward-facing dog.

This morning, I called the vet's office.

Tata: Hi, this is Ta. Yesterday, I brought home my cat.
Jeb: Hi.
Tata: You sent me home without any post-op care instructions. Should I be giving him antibiotics? Feeding him special food?
Jeb: He didn't have surgery.
Tata: He had teeth removed.
Jeb: Nope. No teeth removed.
Tata: What about the infection?
Jeb: No infection.
Tata: You cleaned his teeth and cut his nails - and that's it?
Jeb: Have a nice day.

At first, this seemed like a miracle and I was stupefied. Infections in feline leukemia patients don't just heal up. They kill the patients. I thought back and replayed events over and over in my head. I'd forgotten the substitute vet gave the cat an antibiotic shot Friday afternoon. That probably saved the weak patient, right there. I had not imagined that the kitty was regaining his strength as time passed. Once again, life is sweet if we simply sip.

Next: a joyous tweezing.