Unless you’re a new mom or grandmom (“Nana” in my case) you’ve experienced seemingly everything piling in at once.  Example, the baby gets a stomach virus just when your washer or drier conks out.  Right?

Okay, this is my piling up time.  My old cat Pandora suddenly appeared to be a shadow of her formerly chubby self and then stopped eating.  A harrowing trip to the vet.   If you have any carsick kids, you know what I’m talking about, sans diaper or barf bag.  Is there health insurance for cats?  Two more stressful trips later, and spending way too much money, I brought her home with a bottle of pills and a packet of “Pill Pockets.”

Now any less discriminating cat would delight at her human doling out soft salmon-flavored treats, even with a pill buried inside.  Not Pandora.  Oh yes, she loves the morsel and can get it down and still spit out the pill.  In the past I have tried to force medicine down her throat and still bear the scars.  I feel badly that I can’t explain to her how much better she would feel if she took her medication, much like you can’t explain it to a baby.

This would all be less stressful if I hadn’t just contracted to have new driveways installed along with a major yard configuration in a seemingly futile attempt to thwart storm-water run-off from making the front porch a muddy creek when it rains.  All day long trucks are coming and going, many earnest workers labor to figure it out and in the meantime I’m trying to meet writing deadlines and hearken to Pandora’s every meow.

One thing at a time, please Lord.  I can take a lot of drama, but cope way better when it comes one at a time.