After the ruckus with Replacement Vet No. One, things have settled down around here. Many, many thanks to friends who helped out with alternative recommendations.
The Bean paid a visit to Replacement Vet No. Two — minus Bugs — and she came back happy at last. Replacement Vet No. Two now has a name. For you folks in Northwest Arkansas, she is Dr. Beth Stropes at the Crossover Veterinary Clinic.
Bugs and Dr. Stropes haven’t even met yet. After the prior trauma, Bean wanted to make sure first.
Dr. Stropes fully answered all Bean’s questions — and then some — on vaccinations of all kinds, pharmaceuticals available to treat the parasites we grow big and tall down here, and a thicket of diet options. Throughout a blistering crossexamination interview, Bean reposed in the doctor’s reassuring kindliness, forthright clarity in communicating, and evident up-to-date expertise.
Here’s what Bean’s notes from that interview ended up looking like.
Bugs can’t read the Bean’s handwriting, no not at all.
Doesn’t matter. Now that Bean is happy, Bugs seems that way too.
Here’s a preview of what we’re working on next. Notice how Bugs has his back turned on where we’re ultimately going.
Notice how he’s braced for impact. His hindquarters have turned to jello. He’s paralyzed, you see. He can’t walk. At all. Forward locomotion must be done like a salamander.
:: Why is Bean subjecting him to this indignity? ::
Watch this space.
catself 
There is a Flickr group – “The World’s Heaviest Harness” that it looks like Bugs is trying to join
I cannot speak for laughing. The one that really got me? The “crocodile death roll.” Y’all check this out: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/worldsheaviestharness/
Plus, Oldcat — there’s one in that collection who’s a dead ringer for Gus! I thought at first glance it was him for sure. (I believe that’s the one where the guardian ended up bloodied.)
Gus had a panic attack from a regular collar around his neck. This was years ago, but still. Then one day he got one of those grocery store plastic bags on his neck and ran around the house like a guided missile until he tired out and I could pull it the rest of the way off of him.
I did have an old harness I got for my girl cats but they did the melted bones stuff so I gave up. When Julius was a year or so old I put it on him and he did ok until it pulled on him and then he started flipping end for end until he had actually wiggled out of it.
I have been wondering if a more substantial one like Bugs has would keep him from jaunting off when the doors open up, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Ooooooooo! I LIKE that design! I bought one of the early versions of this contraption for Uma in the hopes she could go O_____E but, Lord have mercy! You’d have thought I had wrapped a SNAKE around her chest! She squirmed and twisted, frantic to escape! I never even got the thing snapped closed to let her try in on! I don’t know that the little “jacket” would be any less frightening for the poor girl but it might be worth a try! I’ll look forward to your updates!
What a — caper. We’re in very good company. Check out the Flickr thing. Hilarious.
omg too funny. The web site AND the salamander description. I eagerly await the next instalment of Headline Bugs News.
Never a dull moment.
ha ha ha! The Dreaded Harness robs all our cats of their bones here…those things are Evil, in their opinion.
Amazing how instantly Bugs remembers his bones when the Dreaded Harness of Doom is removed . . . .
They always say that harnesses steal bones! I once thought it would be cute to put collars on my cats and add a leash and walk them (I’m not sure harnesses existed in the early 90s…). The collars were bad enough – you’d think I was choking those poor boys. But the leashes? Good grief. I gave that dream up quickly.
Yeah. Giving up seems a really attractive idea, at numerous points along this process. You’d think he was being tortured.
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