Sammy's Fine, I'm Not

As I thought, yesterday was stressful but somewhat productive. The stress came from having to take Sammy, my tuxedo cat, to the vet to have two warts removed. He absolutely hates riding in a car, so he whined all the way up to Big Bear City. Basically, everything went well -- the one tiny wart on his eyelid was removed and the remains of the big one were also removed and that 'hole' was sewn up. He's on anitbiotics for a week -- not my favorite thing -- and then in 2 weeks the stitches come out.

The whole vet thing would have been better except for the vet tech. See, the clinic has 2 vet techs -- the old one and the new one. I like the old one -- very sensible, willing to explain things, and willing to bend the rules. The new one, --- well, we just don't get along. The problems began when she wouldn't let me pick him up at 3-3:30 like the old vet tech told me. That way I could get down the hill (with it's 16% grade and switchbacks) before dark.) Nope, the new one made me wait until 4:30. Then when I get there, she hands me this box and says to follow the directions. I ask what is it. (Seemed logical to me.) She snaps back that's it's antibiotics. Okay. Then I look at the bill and ask to make sure if the remains of the large wart were indeed removed and not just sewn up. She says it was debrided. That doesn't answer the question, but she refused to say anything more. So, I called up today to ask the old vet tech what had been done, since she had been assisting the vet. The new vet tech wanted me to tell her what my question was and then proceded to tell me that the area had been cleaned thoroughly so the wart was surely removed. (Cleaning is not removal!) She was suppose to have the old vet tech call me back, but, gee, surprise, I guess my message never got to her. I still want to know what they did for sure and what the note on his teeth means. The only problem is that I will have to go through her to get either to the vet or the old vet tech, so this is going to be a pain!

As for me, I spent the day taking photos at the zoo up there and then hiking. And it was the latter that nearly killed me. Okay, 6 miles and 2000ft in elevation was hard on this short, fat, old lady! By the time I got down from the peak and then drove all the way home, I was so tired and achy I just collapsed. Today, I'm still sore, but I think I will live.

I did get back to work and here's my "painting" for today:

This is a pastel sketch of Tucker. It was commissioned by a friend of his owner after he passed on. It was done in soft pastel, over ink, with touches of watercolor, on hand-made paper. I had some trouble getting the details on him, since it's only 8.5x11". With the hand-made paper and the entire dog, it was tricky to get the fine points of his muzzle. This is way I used touches of watercolor to blend the pastel and add a bit of color. Overall, I'm pleased with it.

And now I'm looking forward to tomorrow and working on something fun. I don't know what that will be, but I'm thinking maybe another oil? or maybe oil pastel? Tune in tomorrow to find out!