Zip At The Vet, Jon To The Rescue

Zip was not happy.

When the Cassandra from the Cambridge Valley Vet called and told us Zip needed a distemper booster I brought him in.  (Jon found two ticks on Zip this morning and went right to the Vet to get him a flea and tick collar.  In all the years I’ve known him Jon has never found a tick on any of our cats)

It wasn’t easy getting Zip in the cat carrier, and he yowled all the way to the Vets office.  (Fortunately  our Vet just up the road from the farm, it takes maybe a minute to get there.)

Once he was in the crate he didn’t want to come out.

Dr Roosevelt and Casey, the tech, were impressive.  First they threw a towel over the carrier and left the room, so he could calm down.  Then, they opened the carrier door and tried to entice him with feathers and treats.

When he still wouldn’t come out, we took the top off the carrier.

It was either when Casey wrapped Zip in the towel to hold him still or when Dr Roosevelt was finding his kidneys that Zip started purring.  I guess to him was a cozy blanket and a good massage.

That’s when my phone rang.

It was Jon wondering what was taking so long.  We all laughed and I told them how Jon was smitten with Zip.  “I can see that,” Dr Roosevelt said, “he even showed me pictures of Zip when he came in to get the collar.”

Then she said she understood because Zip was a charmer.

Zip didn’t blink when he got his shots.  But as we waited for Casey to get the worming medicine I heard Jon’s voice in the waiting room.  Then a knock on the door and there was Jon.

We all laughed some more as Jon turned red.

I was surprised when Jon didn’t come with me to the Vet.  It’s unusual for him to miss the first Vet appointment of any of our animals.  I assumed he didn’t want Zip associating him with forcing him into a carrier and getting shots.

Now here he was, just as were were finishing up.  Just in time to take Zip home.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

When we got home Zip ran from the carrier, jumped onto the woodpile and disappeared in the woodshed.

That’s when I got the cat food.  I filled up his bowl while Jon stood by the woodpile calling to Zip.

I was ready to just leave the food in the barn and let Zip come out in his own time.  He wouldn’t stay there long, not when it was dinner time.  But when I saw Jon I gave him the dish.  Then I went to feed the hens and fill up the water in the barnyard.

When I was done, there was Jon holding Zip’s bowl while he ate.

I told Dr Roosevelt that this was a side of Jon I’d never seen before.  And it’s true about Jon and a cat.  Even though Flo was the first cat to seduce Jon, he never attached to her like he has already to Zip.

But it’s not true that I’ve never seen this side of Jon before.  Because he is such a nurturing person is one of the reasons I love him.

A few days ago Jon mentioned that Zip reminded him of his dog Orson that he wrote his book A Good Dog about.  I was intrigued by that comparison.  It made me think about Jon’s connection to Zip in a new way.

I’m still contemplating it, but there is no doubt that the two of them have something special going on.

(You can read Jon’s version of Zip’s visit to the Vet here)