[[Emily's a rare cat. Since kittenhood she's actually enjoyed visiting the

vet. She likes all the shiny bottles and vials on the counter just out of

her reach; and she likes all the attention. But this created a problem
during today's visit. She began to purr. She purred when the vet pried
open
her mouth to check her teeth. She purred when he examined her from tip to

tail. She even purred when he gave her two hypodermic syringes of serum.
But
when he tried to hear her heart with the stethoscope, all he got was a
deep
rumble. We tried everything to stop Emily purring. Finally we stood her
on

her hind legs, and this confused her just long enough for the doctor to
hear
her heartbeat before the rumble resumed. Dear little Emily - she always
finds some way to complicate things! ]]

LOL! Melody (RB) did exactly the same thing, the first time I brought her
and Harmony (also RB) to the vet. They were kittens and this was my
required "bring the cats to the vet after adopting them from the shelter"
vet appointment.

From the moment the checkup began, Melody purred her little fuzzy head
off, which was fine until it was time to check her heartbeat. NOTHING got
her to stop purring. The vet covered her eyes abruptly. PURRRR. He blew
air in the cat's face. PURRRR. He picked her up under her front legs only,
so that her hind legs were dangling just above the tabletop. PURRRR.

He finally had to give up on hearing her heartbeat. She was purring way
too loudly for him to hear anything. Any cat who can purr that vigorously
for that long must have a healthy heart, anyway.

Harmony, meanwhile, was fine when it came time to check her heartbeat. Her
TEMPERATURE, however, was another story. This was 1990, and they were
still using glass thermometers at the time. The instant that thermometer
went in, Harmony let out a screech fit to shatter every piece of glass
within a three-block radius. I can only imagine how long it took the
owners of pets in the waiting room to pry said pets off the ceiling after
Harmony produced that noise.

Needless to say, out came the thermometer at once. So much for taking
Harmony's temperature. No cat with the amount of energy it took to protest
that vigorously could possibly be running a fever, anyway.

So the end result was that I had one kitten with no heartbeat and one with
no temperature, but both received a clean bill of health. )

Donna, and the kitties whose first vet visit went MUCH more smoothly,
Captain and Stanley