This morning I made several phone calls, so this afternoon I’m resting and recovering. I don’t know why I put calls off for so long, considering that “suffering from making calls + suffering from anticipating making calls” is so much worse than “suffering from making calls.” Actually, I do know: it’s that I can do that math, but I still can’t make myself make the calls until they’ve become Very Urgent Indeed and one kind of anxiety finally trumps the other.
You know what would make calling way, way, WAY easier for me? If I could find out ahead of time when there were appointments available. Because “trying to figure out when to make the appointment” WHILE ON THE PHONE is nearly impossible: I’m too nervous and flustered to think straight, and often inadvertently make the appointment for exactly when I absolutely can’t be there. This morning I finally made an appointment to get the handle of our minivan replaced (it fell off, like, a year ago), and I made it for a day the kids have no school—not because I love the idea of bringing five kids with me to sit in a waiting room for several hours, but because I seriously couldn’t figure out how to fit it with our schedule otherwise and finally just thought, “When COULD it DEFINITELY work, if I don’t take SUFFERING into account?”
Our cat Mouse has started peeing on Paul’s side of the bed. While he’s sleeping in it. This is NOT AT ALL FUNNY.
Also not at all funny is Benchley in his Elizabethan collar:
It’s hard to tell, but it ties under his neck in a pretty bonnet-like bow.
The poor kitty has an ulcerated cornea, which the vet said is one of the more painful things a cat can have. He has four kinds of medicine, each of which has to be given to him 1-4 times per day, AND he has to wear the collar, AND he may not go outside. Best case scenario, it will heal beautifully and everything will be fine; worst case, he’ll lose the eye after costing us thousands of dollars trying to save it. Most likely is that he’ll keep the eye but have a scar that will make his vision worse in that eye to some degree. Probably he’ll lose his driver’s license.
More and more companies are moving to online scheduling. Several of my doctors allow me to schedule appointments online. It is a beautiful thing: the calendar is online and I can see exactly which appointments are available on which days and then I select the one I want and type in my info and don’t have to worry about anyone transcribing anything wrong. It is lovely. Eventually I bet most places will do that and you will be SO HAPPY.
Poor kitty! I hope the best case scenario comes true.
I am the EXACT SAME WAY about the appointment making. It’s like all of a sudden, the part of my brain dedicated to scheduling and remembering to READ the calendar in front of me goes completely blank and all I can do is chirp out, “11:00 on Tuesday? That sounds great!” when, in fact, I’ll be out of town or on an important call.
This is why I don’t have a dentist appointment until early November – because I had to keep calling and rescheduling because I kept scheduling it for days when I was already doing things.
Gah. Get with it, brain!
Sorry about your poor kitty and his eye. That’s rough – for all of you, sounds like.
My beagle is on blood pressure medication and we have to get it at the regular pharmacy. I love that the pharmacist still has to use the regular warning stickers on the bottle. My husband and I laugh about it and remind the dog not to operate any heavy machinery and to let us know if she’s feeling drowsy or dizzy. I hope Benchley isn’t too sad about his driver’s license. Tell him my dog can totally relate.
I have a certain amount of phone phobia too, but now mostly it gets overshadowed by the fact that certain places make it near impossible to speak to a human. I’ve been trying to get someone at the DMV (hahaha, yeah sure) to call me back for a week and I’ve come to the conclusion I’m going to have to bite the bullet and just go in. To get the title to my car I paid off three months ago. Rage.
I hate making those phone calls too! Just ordering a pizza gets me all worked up, but to call and schedule doctor and dentist appointments puts me right in to a tizy.
Why do you think Mouse is peeing in your bed? One of our cats poops and pees in our bed when something is wrong (ie. when they were infested with fleas from my hippie SIL’s visit), or if they’re pissed about something.
Poor Benchley!
How oh how can we get EVERYONE to do online scheduling? I’m willing to donate TIME and MONEY to make such a thing possible. Oh, to not have to make those scheduling phone calls again!
And poor poor Benchley. How long will this all last with the medicine and the lovely bonnet and the not-going-outside?
Also, I’m so sorry for the peeing on the BED. That is horrific, especially because cat pee? Very smelly.
Saly- We think it’s probably the new kitten—and probably she’s still mad about Benchley, too. It could also be an old-age thing: she had bloodwork 4 months ago that showed her kidneys were fine, but she needs them checked again in 2 months. I’m almost HOPING something’s wrong, because then maybe we can MEDICATE the peeing away!
Whimsy- ME TOO! Time and money! …Although no phone solicitation work. The bonnet/inside will last “until things are resolved”—which I gather could be just a week or two or which could stretch out a lonnnng time. Eventually I guess we’ll have to bathe him, because he can’t bathe himself in that get-up. About the cat pee, FORTUNATELY I had some sort of PSYCHIC MOMENT and bought a vinyl mattress cover the day before she peed on our bed. So it’s a hassle, but at least not a LINGERING one.
I finally got myself to where I could call and order pizza by telling myself that these people will never remember me and, even if I were to do something absolutely ridiculous that they all made fun of, they’d never know it was me if they saw me on the street. However – still can’t do doctor’s offices for that EXACT reason. I have scheduled 6 in the last 2 months for various family members and I’ve had a conflict for EVERY SINGLE ONE. One I scheduled on the first day of school. brilliant.
also, just to make this my longest comment ever – when we were dating, I once had a bit to much to drink and slept over at my boyfriend/husband-to-be’s house on the couch with a very smelly blanket. Woke up in the middle of the night to the roomate’s cat peeing all over me. I was so mad that I should have at least tossed him onto the floor off my legs but I was so stunned and sleepy that I just laid there. I love animals but I still hate that cat wherever he is.
Poor Benchley! Do you know what happened to his eye? Is he very tolerant at the vet and for getting all those meds?
As for Mouse… uh oh. Peeing like that has been the downfall of a cat in our family, esp if it’s behavior oriented (like a big “screw you” kitty style). I hope it resolves itself soon.
Shelly- The vet thinks he probably got a scratch on a twig, or from another cat in a fight—and then a virus got in there. He’s VERY BAD at the vet, biting and scratching and growling, which is so weird because at home he’s this docile pudding cup of a cat. Paul thinks the same about Mouse’s peeing, and has been making comments about “doing something,” but so far I’m holding out hope! I’m hoping she’ll just get used to the other cats and then STOP.
oh man, peeing cats is always unpleasant, but on the BED!?? that’s *asking* for a trip to the “farm.” hope mouse cheers up from whatever’s bothering her soon…!
I have been letting my appointment scheduling just pile up for this very reason. I had a full day of calling (and re-calling) a couple months ago, but I was still left with maybe 3 unscheduled appointments. Which still remain unscheduled, along with a bunch more added in the meantime. However. It NEVER OCCURRED TO ME until reading your comments that PROBABLY, your readers are right! Places will probably eventually move more and more toward online scheduling (like everything else). Oh happy day. Life will be so much easier.
I have a ton of anxiety over calling as well. I always put it off til the last minute, and I get bad dreams about them! ><
Oh geez cats. Sheesh.
when i have to call to make an appt (after putting it off as long as possible and sometimes even longer!!) i make sure i have the calendar right in front of me and make sure i have a couple days i can request and sometimes i write down points i need to make/etc so i don’t forget anything. i have put off calling my bank about not being able to check my account online for almost 1 year… that call is going to involve trying to fix whatever screwed up online so i just hope for the best most of the time and put it off some more… cats peeing…about the only way they don’t die of natural causes around here…also why i will never allow another male cat in the house…
I fire up my laptop and open google calendar. That way I am looking at my schedule while I’m on the phone. You know, when I get the balls/xanax to make the damn call. Which is rare. Stupid phone.
Oh but it is funny. Very funny
Oh, dear, it sounds like your Mouse kitty is mad mad mad!
Our Minerva kitty did the same thing right after we got the dog – peed right there ON MY PILLOW. While my HEAD was sleeping on it!
And I can truly say that it is, indeed, better to be (ahem) peed off than peed on!
I have a slight phone phobia too. But once I actually make the call and am talking to someone, I’m fine and wonder why I put it off for so long.
I am terribly jealous about the people saying they can do most of their appointments online. That would be so much better and more efficient for me.
Oh, Mouse. What a brat.
Could you maybe try giving her a litter box of her very own, for a short period of time, in a place where she gets to be by herself at night?
When I got my dog, I made sure my bratty cat had some “alone time” each day, where she could get at her food and box without being snuffled by the overly friendly puppy. Kinda helped. (She still chases him around the house. 13 lb cat. 55 lb pit bull mix. He’s TERRIFIED of her. HA!)
We gave her her own box—and then one day the door got left open and the KITTEN used it, and now ALL BETS ARE OFF.
We had a cat that peed everywhere….she is at my sister’s house now peeing all over her stuff (and has been for 2 years). It was my husband’s cat and it all started when we moved in together and I also had 2 cats. The peeing cat and one of my cats really hated each other and we assumed that was the problem. For a while we got her to pee less often (like twice a year) by placing another litter box near her favorite hiding spot and she was the only cat who used it. We also made sure never to leave laundry baskets full of clothes lying around or open suitcases! Eventually though, she started peeing on the couch every so often (like once a month). That was when I finally said (after 5 years) I can NOT take this anymore and I was going to bring her to a shelter…because who else would take this peeing cat from me? My sister felt bad for her and volunteered. She has no other pets, but the problem persists. She has been to vet numerous times and had blood work done and all of that and there is NO medical reason that can be found. I am pretty sure my sister is ready to put her to sleep. It is just really really hard to deal with a cat who pees all over the place.
I am actually kind of the opposite about appointments. I don’t fret about making them and am, in face, often ill prepared when the office answers the phone. It’s like I suddenly remember what I’m doing and then I’m scrambling for my calendar and a pot of water is boiling over on the stove and I realize that while I’m making dinner probably isn’t a great time to call.
Half the time I have forgotten to consider something and I have to call and change the appointments I’ve made. Surely the receptionists at our doctors’ offices LOVE me.
Butt capes = funny stuff!