setting new fashion trends

Ever see a cat get its blood pressure taken?

Apparently, it used to be a process that nearly killed the animal and sometimes did. In the olden days, they'd stick a catheter into a vein, then snake it into the heart, and, if the animal didn't die of infection (which sometimes set in) or fright, you could get a reading, but most likely on the high end.

Nowadays, they take blood pressure from animals the way they take it from humans, almost. But first, they need a non-furry area. Yesterday, we started the process by shaving the backside of the base of Juliet's tail. I shouldn't say "we" because the vet-tech did it. I teased him that he has a new job description -- shaving cat butts -- and fortunately, he thought it was funny too. But the result is a cat that looks like it's setting new trends in tail fur, kind of like all those trends in mens' facial hair: http://www.askmen.com/fashion/trends/16_fashion_men.html

Next, you take a blood pressure cuff. They come in tiny tiny sizes, and my vet's collection has goofy little pictures of dragons and ducks on them. You wrap the cuff around the tail, hook it up to a machine, and inflate. There are some pictures here: http://www.vmedtech.com/Vet-Dop.htm

At one point, the machine started to beep madly. The vet tech calmly explained that usually, there are three machines hooked up together, and the single machine we were using was looking for its companions. Finding no signal, it started to flat line. But fortunately, that was a mechanical failure, not a cat failure.

The vet had warned me that animals get "white coat syndrome," understandable, given the process. So I brought along Juliet's favorite brush and actually got her to purr at the vet's, a first.

Good news -- her blood pressure is a little high, but it's still within the normal range. Apparently, kidney failure raises blood pressure, and if it goes too high, the cat can go blind. So I now know what to look for and I know that the process can be reversed if caught soon enough.

Oh, and she's gained more weight, which is also good. She still feels fairly bony, but I think she has a little reserve weight for now.