Portmanteau

Retrospective:

We had a really good time in KC with friends. There was something for everyone, drinks, hot tubs, spanking, music, bruschetta, underage lesbians, hulahooping, rain and strawberries. The only thing we didn’t get to do that I wanted to do was the Nelson-Atkins. That will have to be another trip in itself. On Sunday evening we had the pleasure of seeing the Legendary Pink Dots. All the Dots were great, but the venue sucked. At first sight, it seemed quite cool – the newly renovated Grand Emporium, which is one of the oldest bar/music venues in KC. It was quite different than the old dive – almost sterile really, but kind of sleek. Sadly once the music started so did the rattling of the ventilation system that they left exposed to look arty, or something. Through the whole concert unless you were within 15 feet of the stage, the rattling became an annoying distraction from their music. I am not at all impressed with the new Grand Emporium. If they are promoting themselves as a place to have shows they really need to work out the sound issues. Anyhow, the concert was awesome. Afterwards Niels Van Hoorn came out, as he usually does, and co-mingles with the audience. We talked to him until the bar kicked everyone out. My friend Stephanie told him to call us as they were coming through St. Louis the next night and would be staying there before going to Chicago (they weren’t playing in St. Louis). Niels said he would, but we just laughed it off as improbable.
We got back to St. Louis Monday afternoon pretty tired and were just relaxing at home, at which point I noticed our cat, Bosch, was looking a bit thin. Nothing too alarming but I decided to take him to the vet the next day for a check-up. Around 8 that night Stephanie called us to say that Niels had phoned and wanted to have dinner.
We ended up having dinner with Niels, Martin and their friend Guido who isn’t in the band but was touring with them. It was a really fun night, somewhat surreal; it felt like hanging out with friends, not strangers that we had recently met. We didn’t get home until three that morning.
The next day I took Bosch to the vet, as he was seeming weak and was starting to worry me. The vet informed me that Bosch was really sick and wanted to run test on his blood, do x-rays and keep him over night. I let him do the tests but took him home so I could take care of him. At this point he was getting weaker and really looking bad. I couldn’t understand how he could so suddenly seem so sick. The vet thought that he might have feline leukemia, regardless of the fact he had already been vaccinated for it. Unfortunately none of the test results would be back until the following afternoon. I tried feeding him and it did not seem to help. I waited about two hours after we got home and then decided to take him to the emergency pet hospital the vet told me about. Bosch at this point couldn’t really hold his head up on his own. He seemed to be breathing heavily and his eyes kept loosing focus. I was starting to panic inside. I don’t really want to go into the last few hours of that night, so I will end this by saying that we decided to let the doctor put Bosch to sleep. It was really awful, just writing this I feel like I might break again. He was the sweetest, softest kitty and it broke my heart to have to say goodbye so soon to him, and I can only hope that we did the best thing for him.
The outcome is that he did not have anything contagious and my other cats are in the clear, that was the only relief to come from the whole thing.

To Be Cont’d….