My cat Bebe probably just had toothache. She's had her teeth cleaned and one tooth pulled. Her bloodwork turned up nothing unusual, except one stress hormone, which was off the charts. In particular, she's FeLV negative, which is what I was worried about.

She Did Not Appreciate being at the vet.

When I went to pick her up she was huddled wild-eyed in the back of her cage, having hissed and swiped at the nurse when she tried to feed her. Ingrate. Slashdot-poster. I've never had so easy a time getting her in her box. She wanted out of there.

I think part of the problem was ambient noise. My vet got evicted last September, and is now running his practice out of his garage. It's a much better setup than it sounds, and my vet is wonderful, but the street noise and sirens - it's across the road from SF General's ER, and near the 101 overpass - may have contributed to Bebe's general air of psychotic rage.

She's resilient, though. She settled down within minutes of getting home, and was last seen swarming delightedly around the house like some crazed species of otter: the Mission apartment-otter, maybe.

No more fishy catbreath, yay!

My life would be far less complicated if I didn't like animals at all.