Feeling Sorry for Saffy (and Pluto)

Poor Saffy! She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s off to the vet today. I noticed a few days ago that she kept licking and biting at a spot on her back, but thought she must just have had a flea or something and didn’t think anything more of it. But last night MrPloppy noticed that she now has a nasty looking sore on her back – she’s pulled a big lump of fur out, and the skin underneath is all red and weeping. And the redness seems to extend further down her spine, and she’s obviously been licking there a lot too, because her fur’s all matted.

So we’ve made her an appointment with the vet today. I know fur-pulling can be stress related, but she hasn’t been any more stressed lately than she normally is (she’s a pretty nervous cat in general, and although George has added to that, we’ve had him for a year now, so it would seem strange that she’s only now having this reaction), and it looks pretty uncomfortable, so I want to get it checked out. She’s going to seriously hate us for it though – she hates being put in her carry cage, hates going in cars (this will be our first experiment with transporting a cat by taxi – I hope the driver can stand the yowling!), and really really really hates it at the vet’s. So by this afternoon we should be pretty unpopular.

And poor Pluto! It’s no longer a planet 🙁 I can see the logic in downgrading it, but as a long-time astronomy geek I’ve always had an affection for poor little Pluto, way out there on the edge of the Solar System. As the definition of “planet” is just a convenience, it’s a pity they couldn’t make an exception for Pluto for the sake of history. And think of all those school science textbooks that are going to have to be re-written to say we’ve got 8 planets again instead of 9… plus they’re going to have to re-write all the mnemonics…

And talking of Pluto, on Tuesday night I went to see Breakfast on Pluto with the Chick Flicks group. A weird film (it’s about a transvestite growing up in very conservative rural Ireland, and is filmed in a very imaginative style), but great fun, and quite a sweet story. I’ll have to see if I can track down the book.