June 19, 2003 - 6:03 p.m.

can you stand more cat news?

the first round of antibiotics, as prescribed at the RSPCA, was administered by squirting liquid (in foolproof doses) from a syringe-like contraption into miko's mouth. i gave simon sole duty over that one because it seemed like a horrific job. he said the first few days were a struggle, but after that, she let him do it with little or no protest.

now we are on round 2 of medication, which consists of little pink pills and eye goo. the vet recommended we hide the pills in her food ("a bit of tuna" was his suggestion), but after eight different food disguises - i'm not kidding - we nearly gave up. she even managed to eat around the pill while encased in a ball of tightly smushed cheese, a test every animal my family has ever owned has failed.

i called an emergency animal hospital for advice. they recommended one of us wrapping her in a towel and grabbing the scruff of her neck while the other cracks open the mouth and shoves the pill as far down the throat as possible. a last resort, really. (if you have not tried a similar maneuver with a pet before, then you are unaware of the level of difficulty involved.) it worked, but only after 20 minutes worth of constant trying. every time, her little tongue rippled and pushed the pill out.

by day three of the pill-popping, i thought i was pretty smart. i had gotten it down to one or two attempts per pill, which was certainly less traumatic, i thought, for miko.

you will never guess what she did next.

simon and i were watching "roman holiday", and he paused the dvd to offer miko the pill. i told him he was crazy because cats do what they want, and she certainly did not want to eat it even when it tasted like something she might enjoy.

then she ate the dry, undisguised pill straight out of his hand. as simple as that. he offered it to her, and she ate it, probably to make a fool out of me. she had to chew for quite a bit, too, so she obviously tasted the medicine. she has eaten five pills on her own since then. and let me say, for the record, that i have never seen an amimal eat a pill without force or a food disguise.

simon thinks it's becasue she's extra smart and knows us well enough by now to trust us. once she figures out we have to do something regularly, she'll let us do it. i think simon knows something i don't.

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to add another bit to the saga, i came home from work today to a runny-eyed cat. guess who's going back to the vet tomorrow? i don't even want to know what they're going to prescribe her this time, much less how we have to administer it. at least she's feeling better and no longer has a fever.