Samantha of Back to Me is a former vet tech, so I’ve been emailing a lot with her about Georgie. I was fretting to her because I felt bad that I hadn’t noticed his side-breathing (which means he’s having trouble breathing), and that when the vet asked how long he’d been doing it, I had NO IDEA because I HADN’T NOTICED. And even after the vet pointed it out, I still don’t feel like I can see it. I’ll look at him and think, “AH! Yes! I see it!”—and then I look at one of the other cats and their furry sides look the same to me.
Sam reassured me that breathing stuff is hard to see. I was relieved.
It reminds me of other things I’ve learned in various jobs, things that at first were impossible to see but then became obvious. One example is when I worked in a plant nursery and my co-workers were trying to tell me about plants that were “stressing”—that is, plants that needed to be watered but weren’t yet WILTING or anything. At first I was just, “What?? I don’t know what you are TALKING about.” But after awhile, “stressiness” stood out to me like a blinking red light.
Once you learn something like that, sometimes you don’t unlearn it: it’s still like a blinking red light. I get a little stressed myself when I see a stressing plant in a lobby, or a whole row of stressing plants outside a grocery store. If I have a sippy cup of water in the diaper bag, I’ll give them a little drinky.
Another example is when I worked at the daycare and learned to tell if a diaper was wet. It seems so obvious now, but I remember when my co-workers would say, “Well, just FEEL it. Is it wet?” and I’d be all, “Uh.” Now I give it a little squeeze and I know if it’s wet or dry or OMG DANGER DANGER EXPLOSION IMMINENT.
Also from the daycare I learned how to estimate a fever by putting my lips on the child’s forehead. I never got as good as my coworker Steph, who could judge it within a couple of tenths of a degree, but I could tell “no fever” from “low-grade fever” from “oh dear, we are going to have to call the parent.”
I used to make a lot of bread, and I got very good at telling when the dough needed more flour and/or more kneading—even though at first I was looking with frustrated bewilderment at the recipe that told me to add more flour “if needed.”
And I’ve made batches of fudge so often, I can tell by the smell and taste of it when it’s ready to pour out—even before it’s lost its shine or stiffened up.
I’ll bet you all have superpowers like this: things you can spot right away when the average person wouldn’t know what you were talking about. Tell me! I’m interested!
