A little background first. My mother�s cat, Mickey, is very old (18) and he has historically stinky breath. It was discovered about a week ago that his bad breath was caused by a gum infection so they put him on antibiotics.
(Sidebar: Holy crumb! I just realized we�ve had Mickey half my life. I got him in April 1987 after breaking up with my first real boyfriend. He was my cat then but became my mother�s cat when I went away to college. Mickey never really forgave me for �abandoning� him until I moved back in here a few years ago)
So I enter the living room this evening and Mom says to me, �Vicki, smell Mickey�s breath to see if it stinks.�
�No,� I say, reasonably enough, I think. After all, I haven�t had dinner yet.
�No, I need a second opinion. I think his breath smells fine now but I want to make sure it�s not just me.�
I look at her skeptically, but not as skeptically as Mick. And he also looks totally offended. (And please don�t tell me cats don�t understand what we�re talking about because they so do)
Mom says, �Go on Mickey, give Vicki kisses,� and, well, I love the cat, so I put my face down next to his. He sniffs my face a few times and I sniff deeply � no rank cat breath, so I figure my job is done.
But no, apparently because he did not lick my face, I was not fit to judge the foulness (or lack thereof) of his breath.
So then, Auntie De decides we need to get him to yawn. So she begins with the exaggerated �Yaaaaaawwwnnnnnnnn�-ing.
I just look at her and shake my head. She is SO bizarre.
Finally, Mom says, �You have to smell his breath. My nose is so clogged up I can�t smell anything.�
Soooo�..we�ve gone from �Oh, his breath smells fine but I just want a second opinion� to �Oh the cat could very well still have the breath of the dead, but smell it anyway.�
Finally, I just give up and pop his mouth open (something we�re good at because we have to give him thyroid medication) and stick my nose and there and take a good long sniff and pronounce that he has perfectly sweet cat breath.
Yep, that�s my exciting evening. Some people lick toads. I sniff cats
The distinguished gentleman cat
If he wasn't mad at me before, he's definitely mad at me now for taking this picture.
