[VET] Stuffy Noses

“I swear, we should have named you Sniffles.” Dr. Kiyanna Westridge said as she carefully set the large cat carrier down in the middle of the concrete room. Salt, their female Pallas cat, let her disdain for what was happening be known with a small grumbling growling meow. Kiyanna sighed, pushing herself to her feet and shook her head. “I know, I know. This sucks. I know.”

Salt once more grumbled and actually gave a noise akin to an inquiring one. Kiyanna smiled reassuringly, even though the animal couldn’t see it really through the mesh of the carrier. “It’ll be OK. You just have to deal with this a little bit and then back home you go.”

The black haired veterinarian turned and left the room, shutting it behind her as quietly as she could. The room itself was a small concrete room for these sorts of purposes - a fairly sterile concrete room meant for quarantine or in this case, using a nebulizer to treat the feline’s respiratory infection. It was that time of year after all, and poor Salt was prone to them even without the changing weather wreaking havoc on her sinuses. Kiyanna positioned the mask and tube and clicked on the machine. She’d already made sure to load it with a dose of the medication before even getting the Pallas cat for her treatment. Behind her, she could hear their other Pallas cat, Cinnamon, yowling in protest to his mate being taken away from him. Kiyanna smiled again, looking into the room through the wide one way window that spanned one wall.

“Though I wouldn’t blame you for enjoying a break from that, huh?” Kiyanna knew Salt couldn’t hear her from out here, but the comment had to be said. The yowling indicated that her colleague had so far failed to get Cinnamon’s attention on anything besides the ‘kidnapping’ of his mate. “Dramatic cat…”

Still, despite the jokes, the vet kept a sharp eye on her patient, who finally simply laid down and made herself comfortable in a loaf in the carrier. If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn the cat knew where she was, as periodically, the cat would shoot the filthiest stink eye her way. It could have been Salt was keeping an eye on the ‘other’ cat in the room that was her reflection, but it was hard to say. Otherwise, the animal’s body language was tense, but also relaxed at the same time. She was ready to move if she needed to, but was comfortable where she was, thank you very much. 

To make sure to time it right, Kiyanna looked at her phone and noted the time, before setting an alarm to further help her keep track. A fifteen minute treatment tended to be when Salt’s tolerance timer ran out, and Kiyanna wanted to make sure she didn’t put the feline under more stress than this already caused. Cinnamon yowled again, and Salt’s ears twitched forward, as if she’d heard some amount of it. Her tail lashed, before she tucked her head down around her side, draping her tail over her face. Kiyanna grinned.

“Yeah, he’s a bit much, isn’t he, sweetheart?” She commented, going back to the clipboard she held in her other hand and marking her observations. It was a lot of paperwork, but seeing the animal healthy? That was worth putting up with it, and if Salt could put up with Cinnamon, then Kiyanna could put up with a collection of inanimate objects that she didn’t want to deal with.

Before she knew it, the alarm was going off, and the woman scrambled to turn it off. The sound from the nebulizer had changed as well, indicating it had run out of medication to turn into mist. She flicked that off as well before opening the door to the room and walking in. Salt lifted her head and looked at her curiously, and Kiyanna read it as the cat saying ‘It’s about time.’

She smiled and grabbed the carrier by the handle, hoisting it up to look inside. The feline grumbled at her, but it wasn’t aggressive. “Yeah, you ready to go home, sweetie?”

Kiyanna carried the Pallas cat back to the employee-only entrance into the inner room meant for the animals when they wanted privacy. Straw covered the concrete floor and she carefully set the carrier down and unzipped it. She then went to the cat door in the side of the room and unlocked it, nearly getting knocked over by the male Pallas cat as he barreled in. Salt hissed at her mate when he abruptly ended up in her face, and the other quickly backpedaled, sniffing at her. She’d just leave them to it then, Kiyanna thought as she left the room and shut the door firmly behind her, locking it. She could get the carrier later.