I unlocked the clinic and Perry and Blue followed me inside. I was already in emergency mode, as was Blue, who didn’t need to be told to get a room prepped for surgery.
It was all a blur after that. The family showed up with their obviously distressed animal and Blue and I took over immediately. Whisking their pet into the back to take a quick x-ray to get a lay of the land.
When I came out to tell them that, yes, their cat would definitely need surgery to remove the obstruction in their stomach, Perry was out in the waiting room, armed with kittens.
“These little guys are here with their mom,” he said as he gently passed one of the kittens to the distraught owner. “And I think they could use a little cuddle. Poor mom probably needs a break, too.”
With a kitten cradled to her chest, she did look a little calmer. And it would be good for the kittens to have more human interaction before they went off to the shelter soon.
All their attention shifted to me when I stepped forward. “It seems that Munch has been busy and has been living up to hisname. There seems to be quite a large mass in his stomach. Blue is prepping him for surgery. He’ll need to stay here after the surgery tonight, just so we can monitor him as he comes out of anesthesia. He should be able to go home in the morning if everything goes well.”
“Thank you so much.” Andi, the owner, said with a broken voice.
“You can wait here if you want, or I can call you with an update when the surgery is over.”
“We’ll wait.” Andi said before sitting down next to the woman she’d come in with.
My gaze found Perry and I smiled at him, in spite of the seriousness of the situation. He had the little black cat again, cradled in his hands.
“I’ve got it from here, Doc. You go save the patient.” Perry blew me a kiss and made the kitten wave with his tiny paw.
As far as emergency surgeries went, this was fairly routine. Munch had munched on probably every hair elastic that existed in that home. His stomach had been completely blocked by them, which was definitely the cause of all his distress.
The hair ties were removed and he was carefully stitched back together. We brought him out of the anesthesia and I scrubbed up before going out into the waiting room.
When they saw me, they stood up, disturbing the sleeping kittens they were still holding. Perry was still here, too. Still cuddling the little black Gumball look-alike.
“Munch is awake and all the hair ties have been successfully evicted. Blue is taking him back to the kennels so he can recover more before we can send him home, but you’re welcome to come in and see him.”
Andi handed the kitten back to Perry, who managed to cradle two sleeping kittens. He collected the third from the other ownerand whispered to them that he’d take them back to their mom in a few minutes in case they were hungry.
Munch’s owners cried when they saw him all groggy and now the proud owner of a couple bald spots. He had a bald spot on his leg for the IV and another, much larger one, on his stomach where the surgical site was. But he was alive and would make a full recovery, barring any disastrous complication.
They were on their way out, being escorted by Blue, when Perry finally slipped into the room with the kittens. He put them back with their mom, who did look a little better now that she’d had a break from them. Or maybe that was just my imagination.
“I can’t believe you stayed.”
Perry shrugged like it was nothing. “They needed a distraction and I was all too happy to hang out with the kittens again. So secretly, it was pretty selfish of me.”
It didn’t seem selfish at all. It seemed like the kind of thing I’d wished any one of my exes would have wanted to do.
“Munch is settled in and stable.” Blue said. “Did you need me to stick around and monitor him for a while?”
“No, you go on home.” I told Blue. “I’ll stick around for a while to keep an eye on him.”
Blue nodded and whipped his phone out and shot off a text. Probably to one of his boyfriends.
“And what about you?” I tucked my hands in my pockets because Perry was a walking temptation.
“Me? Oh, I’m staying.” He was so matter of fact about it that I didn’t think arguing would get me anywhere. “Go check on your patient, then come to the staff room.” Perry shooed me away and after saying a quick goodbye to Blue, who had watched the entire exchange with quiet amusement, I did as I’d been told.
Munch was still groggy as hell, but his vitals were steady and he seemed to be coming out of the anesthesia quite nicely. I tooka few minutes to check on my other patients, not that there were many. I tried to leave as few animals here as possible.
When I finally made it to the staff room, Perry had our food unpacked and on the table. The minute I stepped into the room, he hit play on his phone and the room filled with music.
“I figured we could finish up our dinner here while we wait on Munch.”
Perry had managed to find some plastic cutlery and some napkins and he’d set the table with them. A plastic fork, a plastic knife, a napkin, and then a takeout container. On the table were two cans of soda that he must have gotten from the fridge.
