(I posted this during Blogathon but it should probably be on this page too.)
This is my baby, Julie:

He’ll be 9 in September, and I’ve been lucky in that he’s been really sweet and healthy for most of that time. He had one bout of trips to the vet- a very expensive 4 visits and 2 lab tests in 10 weeks. But that was 5 years ago and he’s been doing well ever since. A few days ago he started peeing on my laundry pile, which, sadly, is not unlike him if he’s mad at me or if his litterbox isn’t to his liking. He was acting weird, so I called the vet, which resulted in this:

It’s terrifying when you call the vet and they say “Yeah, that could be life threatening- you need to bring him in”. He’s got a history of bladder crystals and they were worried that he was “blocked”. In that photo, he’s getting subcutaneous (under the skin) fluid so he’ll absorb it and help flush any toxins out. It’s also about 2 in the morning in that pic.
We were sent home with medicine and the instruction to only feed him canned food for a few days. He was *thrilled* with that idea last night, scarfing down his dinner. Today, he ate the first half a can, but in the last several hours hasn’t touched the second half, and also refused a treat when I was upstairs a bit ago. So, the vet got called again, but they don’t seem concerned. I, on the other hand, am freaking out because it is very scary to see your pet not acting in accordance with their personality.
**I did end up taking him back to the vet that night. He got a couple of shots that must have been little needles full of magic because he was back to his old self three hours later. The vet told me to feed him a bland diet on Sunday, but that did not go over very well. I tried chicken baby food, per vet’s orders, he wouldn’t touch it. I tried regular chicken- still wouldn’t touch it. I tried lamb, also to no avail. Finally I fed him cat food, and he scarfed it down. Interestingly, it was chicken and rice cat food, he hat the first half can but not the second half can. It was the chicken and rice that he’d refused Saturday too, so this morning I gave him fish cat food and he ate that. So apparently, my cat is just a weirdo that doesn’t like chicken.