Journals are not my thing. I'm of the "why should I take time to write about *that*" mentality. But - I finally have something new, different, and hopefully interesting to put in a "journal".

For 32 years I worked for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Management changes rendered my experience unnecessary, so I was laid off in February. I am also not a very "corporate" person, so I was not fitting in well with the new directions. Blame the 60's SanFran area childhood, or whatever.

So, since I landed - not on my feet, exactly, but on a decently comfortable cushion - without a job, I decided to try implementing an off-hand suggestion made to me
only about a week before the layoff, and look for work in a field I had even more years of experience. Cats. Specifically, giving cats medications in client's homes - allowing the cat to be mad at me instead of their family, and saving them the stress of a trip to the vet, or a boarding stay at the vet for medications required more often than the owner is home, or whatever reason anyone can think of for why someone else would be a better choice for medicating a cat.

Welcome to my new business - Home Medi-Cat!

My dad brought home my first cat when I was about 2 (in retrospect, he brought home a cat for *him* - I was the excuse!). I have never been without at least one cat ever since. Even the first time I moved out on my own, I sublet a garage home for a woman while she went off to school - leaving her 3 cats with me. She eventually took two of the cats with her, and the third moved across the street - partly because I had brought home some younger cats of my own.

I had always done some medicating of cats - from drops in the eyes of the first cat (and some pills after he went into acute renal failure); to saving a kitten my brother found in a dumpster by pouring a huge pill (crushed and mixed with water) into the baby for several hours (got him through it - he lived to be 17!).

Then my first cat "of my own" first had a bad bout with pneumonitis, then a bad abcess on his chest (had to insert liquid meds into the "hole" to keep it open and healing from the inside) - and then had chronic FUS (before much was known about it), so I learned to clean a catheter and give a lot more pills before losing him due to ureic toxicity (The pet food industry, veterinarians and I have learned a lot in 40 years).

I've been giving pills to cats pretty much all my adult life. In 1993, I had a cat go into renal failure, and learned how to give Subcutaneous fluids.

Since then, I've had cats with diabetes who needed insulin injections; several more who lived long enough to need fluids; many more who needed pills - anything from very easy (tapezole is small and easy to give) to Metronidozole (aka Flagyl), which is large and tastes awful. I learned that you can overcome the bad taste of pills by using empty gel capsules, and coating them first. I have applied topical medications. I have cleaned wounds and surgical incisions. I have given SubCutaneous injections of almost everything other than the annual required vaccinations (those require a vet - and should be given by a vet so they can also give a physical at the same time).

I'm starting with my local area, doing the injections (just got done giving 2 weeks of antibiotic injections to a cat who threw up when given pills), fluids, and pills.

I'm scared, excited, nervous - and hopeful. Wish me luck!