Sam's cavity filling went fine. Better than fine, actually. We were in and out of there in 15 minutes. They were motivated because it was lunchtime. I got to sit at the end of the chair with his feet in my lap. Bing bang boom it was over. Sam got to pick a car from the surprise drawer, just as he had hoped. Then he asked one of the ladies in the office for his goody bag. (The day before, for his regular cleaning, in addition to choosing a toy from the surprise drawer, they had given him a little bag complete with toothbrush, toothpaste, floss and sticker.) He didn't get one, of course. But I think I'm with Sam, if you have a cavity, you ought to get extra tooth cleaning supplies, just to be sure.

The same day, I took the cat to the vet. She did not fare so well as Sam. The vet decided to keep her to "get a sample" to check for UTI. This was not a good idea. I got a call two hours later saying they could not get a sample because Annabel was not cooperating. Actually, the words the doctor used were "she's being impossible." So they gave me the antibiotics anyway. I find that giving the cat medicine is both easier and more difficult than giving medicine to the kids. Easier, because she is smaller and can be easily forced. She also makes less noise. More difficult, because she can hide for whole days in the house without my finding her.

Tonight, Sam thought he could help me find the cat. He walked through the house yelling "AN-NA-BEL! COME TO ME!" at the top of his lungs. He would check back with us at intervals, "She's not in the office." "She's not in the bathroom." "She's not in the closet." Jack just snickered because he knew what Sam apparently did not. There was no way that cat was going to show herself with Sam making such a fuss.