Why do veterinary emergencies always happen late at night, on weekends, and/or when travel is otherwise difficult – whether due to logistics or weather or whatever?

The van wasn’t running Friday. A combination of loose battery leads and extreme cold took it out. My lovely neighbour unhooked the battery and took it home to charge, but it meant that there weas no possibility of going anywhere for any reason. So of course, the cat began exhibiting symptoms of urinary blockage (which we have dealt with before with another cat and it is heckin’ serious). I watched him and worried and stressed all day and by that evening, was fairly sure we would be making an animal ER run sometime in the night. As soon as the battery was charged again, neighbour reinstalled it, and we brought the van up to the house and loaded up for a quick exit should it become necessary.

Surprisingly, we had a quiet night. Everyone slept deeply. But Sat morning we headed out anyway. The roads werent awesome, but we have good winter tires and daylight is easier to deal with than darkness. Dropped the dog and kiddos at mom’s and continued on to the Veterinary hospital ER with the cat.

As we suspected, he did indeed have a blockage. That’s the bad news. The good news is, we caught it early enough that it wasn’t terribly severe or complicated. It still cost WAY more than we wanted to spend, but a couple hours and some high-test medications and simple procedures later and we were on our way home.

….until midnight that night, when we hauled him back again because things seemed to be going sideways. They checked him, everything seemed okay, so back hime we went again, with the proviso that if he hadn’t been able to pee on his own by midmorning Sunday, we would need to bring him back for further treatment. And since we can’t afford further treatment, that really translates to a one-way trip for the cat. Which we did NOT want to contemplate.

By 8am, he hadn’t managed to pee, and I was crying in the shower. At 9, I checked the litter box again, and he had managed to pee a significant amount. Saved his own life.

We celebrated a birthday that day instead of burying a cat. Much better way to spend a day.

He isn’t entirely out of the woods yet. We have a week of meds, and have to watch him for awhile yet, but hopefully this was a one-time thing. They’re “only” cats, but we’re awfully fond of them.