Soothing the Cat
My crazy cat, Katya, has embaldend herself. Spell-check tells me that embaldend is not a word. Apparently, embaldenated isn't, either. What she's done is over-groomed herself until she has bald spots. I don't know if she's allergic to something or just neurotic. My guess is neurotic.
I was going to take a picture of the damage for the viewing pleasure of all the zombie fans out there, but she's hiding at the moment. Oh — there she is. Well, never mind.
ANYWAY, I went on-line and found some advice for soothing nervous irritation and skin irritation and combined them.
I boiled up some chamomile herbal tea and some aloe plant, let it steep until it was just warm, held the cat in the dry bathtub and sponged the doctored water over her, especially the bald bits. It really seems to have calmed her down a bit. I'm going to go to the natural stuff store and get some dried chamomile flowers to use instead of the tea (tisane, really, since there's no tea in it).
This is a real adventure for me, since chamomile (related to ragweed) can trigger an anaphylactic reaction in people who've already had one, which I have. But I think that would only be if I drank it, and I'm not likely to drink cat-water, not even if you put Chianti in it.
WRITING PROMPT: How much a risk would your main character take for an animal in relatively minor distress? Great distress? Potentially fatal distress?
MA
