Nuclear Feline Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Yesterday I got last-minute rabies shots for Betsy (golden retriever) and Pippin (the cat). Pippin had to ride in our Schnauzer's kennel, and he hates the Schnauzer more than a University of Kentucky fan hates Christian Laettner. To be surrounded with "that dog's" smell was simply more than he could bear. In protest, Pippin decided to develop situational feline IBS; and let me just say that cat diarrhea thoroughly blew away all of my former conceptions of "what's grosser than gross".

Practicing my positive thinking here, it was a bonding moment for the kids and I, trying to decide what to do. If we remove the poo-covered, freaked-out, scratching kitty from the kennel, dinky gets all over us. Leave him in there, and it's fourteen layers of nasty rolling around in the back seat.

To make the situation sweeter, I'd JUST cleaned the van out for our trip, forgetting to replace my usual mega Mom stash of napkins, wipes, etc. All I had was a blue plastic cup and three Pal's napkins. And let me tell you, this was at least a thirty-napkin job. The car was steaming hot without AC, and the animals were threatening to get sicker from the heat; but with the windows up, we were all choking from the smell.

I pulled over on the side of the road and confirmed my hypothesis that a blue plastic cup is not the ideal tool for this job. Also, we were reminded that cats don't like leashes. At this point, 107-lb Betsy (the golden retriever) couldn't understand why we were stopping, and moreso why she couldn't get out of the car and meet all of the nice people who were waiting to adore her if we would just let her try.

Back in the van. Applying hand sanitizer was about as effective as taking shelter under an umbrella during a nuclear attack, but we did it anyway.

Drove another fifteen minutes and started singing Handel when I saw a Car Wash across the street. Was it a manual? Please be manual!!! YES! It was. Pulled in with fifty cents in quarters and ten minutes before the appointment.

Lesson # 3. If you remember nothing else from this note, please remember this. If you must ever use a high-powered water stream to blast cat diarrhea out of a plastic kennel, close your mouth first. I'm leaving that right there.

We made it to the appointment just in time. Got the shots. Drove home. Took showers. Brushed my teeth.

What's next on the pre-trip checklist?

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A brief but important prayer request?

Some weirdness is happening with our agency, and we STILL don't have our final travel packet with in-country costs. This is the largest adoption agency dealing with China, and they have a stellar reputation. But they have been seriously delayed in this aspect of our process for some reason. It's uncanny.

This delay makes things very complicated, because our Show Hope grant is supposed to cover in-country costs. But Show Hope needs ten days to transfer funds. We leave our house in four days, and two of those days are weekends.

I've tried to straighten this out multiple times, but our agency is still dragging. So, Bobby is calling everyone again this morning, trying to get things ironed out.

We know the Lord is watching, and that He will care for our needs. But I can't deny that it's a bit unnerving. And your prayers would be precious.