A cat to be proud of

Lately, Queen Jaffa had taken to licking the one spot in her body where she really shouldn't. She had mastered the yoga move inolved. In truly ungainly fashion, she would lay on her back and splay her legs in the air, and then do a sudden sit-up and lean forward to bring her head between her back legs, at which point she would start licking her privates assiduously.

Delta and I were, at first, so horrified by the appalling lack of propriety that we forgot to consider her potential ailment. Were we really to be saddled with a bottom-licking kitty?

So yesterday, we took QJ for a dreaded visit to the vet, Dr B.

Now, I always think of QJ as a rather docile kitty, seeing as she spends about 18 hours of the day sleeping, and the remaining 6 either eating or cuddled up in our laps. Not an ounce of hostility in that cat.

Except when we go see Dr B. For whatever reason, the Doc, who I personally find to be rather charming myself, unleashes the wrath of gawd in QJ. She unfurls all her latent feral felineness, puffs out her lungs, and releases a crescendoing opera of hiss and yowl.   

Delta and I just stood back from the cacophany, alternately apologizing to Dr B and trying to pacify an obstreperous QJ.  It was all rather disconcerting, really. The entire time we were there, QJ yowled in the horrific tones of fighting alleycats, although Dr B was barely even touching  her at all. Drama queen.

She created such a racket in fact, that when we opened the door of the exam room to leave, we found we had company: All the other patients in the clinic (a huge great dane, a tiny chihuahua, and five cats), flustered by QJ's yowls, had gathered together in collective alarm behind the closed door of the room, to investigate what all the yelling was about.

There was a moment of awkward pause while we all stared at each other in embarrassment - two comical dogs, five cats, Dr B, QJ, Delta and me. Suddenly realizing that the examination was over, and that she had an audience, QJ brushed us off with a disdainful shake, and jumped into my arms soshe could be carried out with her head held high.

Nothing, if not a cat to be proud of.