The cold snap, day 2

Yesterday was a stay-in-the-house day. I walked the dog in the morning. Oh, and we went to the vet's office with Bertie. Then Walt walked Callie in the afternoon. Otherwise, we just stayed in and tried to stay warm. No gardening work got done.

Sun on the curtains in the living room yesterday morning

One side benefit of the cold weather that roared in on Thursday was morning sunshine on Friday. I don't know how long it had been since sun streamed in through the big French doors in our living/dining room. It was almost exhilarating. It certainly lifted my spirits.

At 11:00 we had an appointment at the vet's with Bertie the Black Cat. Walt put a leash on him, just to be safe, and we put him in the car. He didn't seem to mind riding in the car — he's better at it than Callie the Collie is. She hates the car and lies flat on the back seat, trembling, whenever we take her anywhere. Bertie jumped up on the platform behind the back seat and enjoyed the view. He looked out the side windows and meowed excitedly.

The sun shining into the little seating area in our living room

When we got to the vet's, there were no customers or animals in the waiting area. That was nice. We were nervous about how Bertie would behave, and we don't have a carrier for him. After a few minutes, people came in with two big dogs. Bertie stayed in Walt's lap and didn't freak out. Then the vet, a young man who lives just a mile or two down the road from us, called us in.

Here's what the Velux windows upstairs
looked like yesterday morning.

I told him some of the things that have happened since Bertie moved into our neighborhood. All normal, the vet said — cats have to work out their territorial claims, and things will finally settle down. I told him that one neighbor had been upset about having another cat in the neighborhood. Tant pis, he said. We live in a rural area. Bertie is neutered and vaccinated. The neighbors will just have to get used to it!

When I mentioned that Bertie had been accused of scratching another of our neighbors — a woman the vet knows, of course, since this is a small town — his reaction was, basically: that will teach her to mess with a cat that she doesn't know very well. She probably won't try to pet Bertie again. He said he'd talk to her about the incident when he sees her again.

Icy view out an upstairs window

It was all very positive for us. Bertie needs de-worming, and we now have the medicine for that. Callie will get de-wormed this week too. Bertie's shots are up to date now. The vet's conclusion about Bertie: Il est cool. That means "cool, calm, and collected." Bertie was well behaved in the office, even when he got his shot. He interacted with the vet the way he interacts with us: nicely.

The ride home was not quite as uneventful as the ride over to the vet's office (about 3 miles from the house). Bertie, who hadn't been able to go out all morning because we were afraid he might not come home in time for the appointment, dropped a big present for us on the back seat of the car. Yuck. We should have foreseen that, but hadn't. There was no real damage done.