Parfait, the Stowaway

Parfait is a precious little dilute calico, just a little thing, not very many teeth, just a little bitty meow, but a great big purr. She's an older girl and she needs fluids every day. Parfait loves cages and carriers. She always loves to sneak inside. Sometimes when a new kitty arrives, if the carrier is left sitting there for a minute, she climbs in. She's almost ridden home with people many times.

Today is a big vet day. Lots of critters going in for various types of work for the day. The carriers had been set out, the labels affixed, and at six o'clock this morning, we were catching the appropriate animal to put into the appropriate carrier. They were loaded up into the van and driven off to Culpeper Animal Hospital.

Keeping track of the medical records for a thousand animals is no small chore. Everyone has their computer record, charts are printed every day for anyone needing medication, and charts must be printed for anyone going to the vet. Labels are printed to put on carriers, so there's no confusion on who is who, and what work needs to be done. Just imagine how you would like to be the vet who got seven black cats, seven brown tabby's, seven black and whites, and had to figure out who bites and who doesn't, and who was getting neutered, and who needed a tooth pulled. The label on each carrier gives the animal's name, species, personality (as in caution your fingers will be removed if you put them into this carrier), and what medical work is needed for the day. Each animal is also sent along with its full medical chart, showing it’s shot history, as well as its prior medical history, and what is wrong today.

The animals all arrived safely at Culpeper Animal Hospital, were unloaded, and began to get prepared for whatever procedure they were having today. For non-emergency items, we block our vet service a day at a time. Imagine calling for a vet appointment, and instead of being assigned a half-hour slot, you were assigned a day!Well that's the way it is at Rikki's Refuge! And soon the phone rang. Culpeper Animal Hospital was saying, “We seem to have an extra animal here.” The vet list always has last-minute changes to it, because if surgery was scheduled and someone has a cold it has to be delayed, if someone has come down ill unexpectedly, or someone has recovered unexpectedly they may be added to, or deleted from, the list.

I was given a description of the additional animal and I was most baffled. Didn't sound like a last-minute changed one. We went over the list of each one and everybody who should be there, was there, and there was one more. The extra kitty had arrived in a carrier with a very feral cat wrapped in a mesh laundry bag (aka feral cat handling device), with only one name and description on that carrier.

“Ah Ha”, I said, “does this look like an old girl, not many teeth, fairly small, very nice and friendly? Lena, run check and see if Parfait is here.”