A cat, and his chauffeur

So Pepe hadn't been to the doctor since we moved here.

(photo taken by Pepe's in-law Todd Byers)

We were noticing that he was sneezing a lot, sleeping in weird spots (like the bathroom) and just didn't seem quite himself. Not terrible, just not super good. And, he is 14, so you know, on the elderly side. So I did a google search for "english speaking vets in Geneva that do house calls" and came up with a doctor! The vet was kind enough to come out to our house to examine Pepe and confirmed that he needed a tooth pulled (you can sneeze from hurt teeth!), and also took some blood to be tested. So we made an appointment for him to have the tooth pulled for the next week. The vet's office is not that far away from us, but kind of a hassle to get to - the other side of town. So on the tooth pulling morning, I took a cab with Pepe at 8am to the vet (and by the way the cab driver was all mad that I had a cat. I wanted to say - back off cab driver it's a cat in a box not a loose tiger or something, but I didn't know the correct words. AND Pepe sat quietly in his box the whole time - not even a peep - so there), dropped him off, took two busses back home, picked up Lucia from school, took two busses back to the vet to get him and then we all took a cab home. AH! So that was a bit much. But getting to the rest of the story, the vet told us that they were able to test Pepe's blood and urine during the tooth surgery and found that Pepe is diabetic.

O.k. so this means we need to give him two shots of insulin a day for the rest of his life! It is kind of a lot to wrap your head around. We also had to get new special food and stuff for him. The main thing we are sad about is our traveling life... I mean, having to be home to give the cat a shot everyday kind of puts a damper on a lot of trips. Pepe can go to our friends Todd & Mark who take care of him, but we used to be able to leave him home for a couple of days if we were going somewhere for the weekend - not the case anymore. Sigh.

And speaking of trips - so the thing with the diabetes is, Pepe needs to have his blood tested two times a week the vet tells me, for probably two months. And it needs to be exactly 6 hours after he eats in the morning. As it turns out, the 6 hour time frame is right when Lucia has school, so I can't be running Pepe all around town and getting the girl from school too. O.k. - I just described my day of travel just taking him to the vet once. I am thinking - how on earth am I going to manage this? But the vet tells me that they know a man that will ferry Pepe to and from his twice weekly appointments. Who knew?

Enter Monsieur Cottier!

As soon as he came to get Pepe the first time, we realized that we knew each other. He said - I bring Pepe to you one year ago! I said yes! You brought Pepe one year ago! He actually brought Pepe from the airport to our house when Pepe made the big trip over. So it was kind of a reunion - who thought I would ever see him again?

But anyway, Monsieur Cottier is just great. He comes to our house twice a week to chauffeur Pepe back and forth and we are so glad about it. He is a very sweet man and you can just tell that he loves animals. On a side note, he told me that the other day he took a cat that weighed 13 kilos to the doctor! A kilo is 2.2 lbs - the cat is like 28lbs! I told him that is what Lucia weighs! Crazy. I guess the cat was wild and attacked him too. So apparently his job can be dangerous too. Of course not while he is chauffeuring Pepe.

By the way Monsiuer Cottier was so excited that his picture was going to be sent to Seattle. He said "I will be very famous in this Seattle!"