An interesting novel, but a bit disjointed and confusing. Like the book All The Light We Cannot See, there are two parallel stories going on, with each chapter bouncing between two very different worlds. Eventually, we see how the two stories relate to each other. They don’t merge, but they come close. There’s a lot of symbolism involving cats and…
For Day 2, the itinerary was lighter: A visit to another temple (Wat Suthat), and then a local park, and then finish the day strolling through Bangkok’s extensive Chinatown. First, I chowed down at the hotel’s excellent buffet. I took a tuk-tuk to Wat Suthat, just north of Chinatown. Wat Suthat is one of the city’s most beautiful and biggest…
I snagged a great seat – a window seat in the emergency row, with lots of legroom – on the flight from Amsterdam to Bangkok. Bangkok has an Airport Rail Link, which is very similar to New York’s Airtrain. And the BTS train system is just like the New York subway. So rather than take a cab, I elected to…
There are so many enjoyable aspects of the Mission Rabies Goa vaccination drive (Here’s their Facebook Page; give em a ‘like’). I loved meeting and bonding with my fellow volunteers. Driving through Goa and walking the streets and alleys was fascinating. Sampling Indian breakfast cuisine at the different roadside cafés was great. Meeting and chatting with the residents of Goa…
The Mission Rabies vaccination drive is exhilarating, but it’s physically taxing work. You wake up early and spend nearly the entire day chasing down dogs, in stifling heat and humidity. Fortunately, the Mission Rabies folks provided us with the opportunity to recharge our batteries after the first week, by arranging a relaxing, meditation retreat for the volunteers. On Saturday morning,…
Cats are meticulous about their appearance. They take grooming seriously, and most cats maintain a beautiful, spotless hair coat. Occasionally, however, cats will develop (horror of horrors)… dandruff! Of course, dandruff – dry, dead skin cells that flake off from the skin – isn’t a cause of social embarrassment in cats that it is in humans. They couldn’t care less. In most cases, dandruff…
Few things are more frustrating and irritating for humans than the common cold. The sneezing, the congestion, the runny nose, and the watery eyes can make us truly miserable. Unfortunately, our feline counterparts can relate; they, too, can fall victim to this annoying malady. In cats, we tend to be a little more technical with the terminology, preferring to call the condition…
A successful examination begins with the owner. If you think about it, being a cat veterinarian is not very different from being a pediatrician. We can’t ask our patients what’s wrong. We just have to figure it out.Nowhere is the role of a cat owner more important than at the veterinarian’s office, where a good history can sometimes mean the…
Cats can be tricky to medicate. Veterinarians know that it is difficult to medicate a cat consistently with a medication that is required twice daily, and almost impossible to administer a medication reliably and unfailingly three times daily. Most veterinarians, when dealing with cats, try to strike a balance between efficacy and ease of administration, prescribing the most effective drug…
The brain is the main organ that comprises the central nervous system of the cat. It is the control center for receiving and interpreting information that comes from the cat’s own body, and from the outside world. Learning and perception takes place in the brain, and all of the sensations – sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and pain – are…
They say that big things come in little packages, and nowhere is this more apparent than the feline pancreas. This small organ, often weighing no more than 6 to 8 ounces, plays a huge, multifaceted role in maintaining your cat’s health. The pancreas is shaped like an upside down V. The left lobe of the pancreas is nestled up…
Feline lungs are remarkably similar to a human’s lungs. For example, the lungs occupy most of the space in the chest cavity, lying on both sides of the heart, just like they do in humans. In my mind, I think of the lungs as being divided into two portions – the airways, and the lung tissue. An easy way…
In a past blog post, I described the important role the kidneys play in a cat’s overall health. In addition to making hormones and regulating the blood pressure, the kidneys filter toxins from the bloodstream, creating urine in the process. So where does that urine go after it is manufactured by the kidneys? Anyone who’s waited in line for the…
Body Parts – The Spleen Ask most people what their cat’s heart does, and they’ll tell you it pumps blood. How about the lungs? They breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The kidneys? They filter toxins from the blood stream and put them in the urine. The spleen? That’s easy. It… it… Admit it: you have no idea what…