Ira is sick. I took him to the vet today. They did a battery of tests and
filled him with some sort of fluid because I hadn't seen him drinking. The
fluid puffed him up in the shoulders, like he had been working out his traps
and delts in the kitty gym. The whole thing cost $234.

They thought maybe he had swallowed a piece of string, because a cat they had seen the previous week had done the same. They checked his mouth and didn't see any string, so they
were pretty sure it wasn't that.

I had to take off the first half of my shift tonight to take him to the vet.
When I came into work my supervisor asked how he was. I told her he was probably
OK, but that finding out was costing me half a month's pay. She told me her
cat swallowed string and they had to remove it, but the surgery gave her an
infection and they had to put her down.

The vet also gave me special prescription kitty food. I gave some to Ira, but I
accidentally opened the door and I think Lindsey ate most of it.