So I went to the veterinarian yesterday with my cat to investigate the scabbiness and flaky skin problems it was having. When I got him out of the box, the vet instructed me to hold the cat's neck between my hands while he gave him an injection. While giving the injection into the back of his neck, the little cat squirmed away and I can only imagine what sort of pain he experienced wiggling with a needle in his spine.
The vet gave another injection to the cat and placed him back into the box. At this point the cat became limp and unable to walk. I asked if he was okay, and the vet responded that, no, in fact he wasn't ok. A few minutes later, and the kitten was completely comatose. There was no movement at all in his limbs. He wasn't even blinking. The vet then left the office and took me and the cat in his carry box (actually just a cardboard box from my parents with a soft sheet) to his other office (across the street) where he told me to sit and wait. The vet then left me and the cat and returned to the main office.
Ten minutes passed and nothing happened. The cat was just as limp as before. The vet returned and held up the cat at which point the cat's head snapped back. He put the cat back into his box and he lied there motionless again. At this point I began to look around this office and noticed an empty bottle of baijiu (rice alcohol) and a couple half-drunk beers on a table in the center of the room. The vet then gave the cat another injection with no reaction and then took a sip o
f beer. When I finally got a smell of his breath, I could tell he was drunk, and not just any drunk, this guy was clearly under the influence. I probably wouldn't have minded if it were my doctor. I think it would be humorous to see my doctor drunk and trying to assist patients, but here was this veterinarian trying (at this point) to rescue a cat that he had hurt with his negligence. This picture here is of the doctor's table where the bottle of baijiu, which is now in the trash, was previously lying on the ground.
The vet gave another injection to the cat and placed him back into the box. At this point the cat became limp and unable to walk. I asked if he was okay, and the vet responded that, no, in fact he wasn't ok. A few minutes later, and the kitten was completely comatose. There was no movement at all in his limbs. He wasn't even blinking. The vet then left the office and took me and the cat in his carry box (actually just a cardboard box from my parents with a soft sheet) to his other office (across the street) where he told me to sit and wait. The vet then left me and the cat and returned to the main office.
Ten minutes passed and nothing happened. The cat was just as limp as before. The vet returned and held up the cat at which point the cat's head snapped back. He put the cat back into his box and he lied there motionless again. At this point I began to look around this office and noticed an empty bottle of baijiu (rice alcohol) and a couple half-drunk beers on a table in the center of the room. The vet then gave the cat another injection with no reaction and then took a sip o
f beer. When I finally got a smell of his breath, I could tell he was drunk, and not just any drunk, this guy was clearly under the influence. I probably wouldn't have minded if it were my doctor. I think it would be humorous to see my doctor drunk and trying to assist patients, but here was this veterinarian trying (at this point) to rescue a cat that he had hurt with his negligence. This picture here is of the doctor's table where the bottle of baijiu, which is now in the trash, was previously lying on the ground.The vet left again and returned with another injection. No reaction. He told me to wait again and I sat there while he left to his other office. He came back again with another injection. Nothing. At this point it went through my head exactly what I would do if the cat died there. Did I have any recourse? It turns out he is also a teacher at CWNU, but doubt there is anything I could do other than try my best to express my anger in Chinese.
Finally after an hour and a half of sitting and staring at the lifeless cat, he began to come to and began to move his legs. Eventually he was able to drunkenly move around with great difficulty. Only this morning was he able to walk in a straight path. I've asked about other vets in the Nanchong area.
Today I continued talking about debating in my advanced oral English class. I'm leading up to a big debate as a final exam in which six groups will individually debate the pros and cons of the Iraq war, gay marriage, and immigration reform. I'm slowly taking them through each part of a debate; the opening statement, cross-examination, rebuttal, and closing statement. Each week we talk about a new topic and practice another aspect of the debate structure.
Today's topic, perhaps partly for my own interest to see their ideas and to give them some more background into contemporary American politics, was the legalization of marijuana. Not one student of all 150 students I had today was pro-legalization. Everyone had these weird notions of what marijuana did and what the effects were. Some ideas were very extreme, that marijuana could cause the breakdown of society: smoking or touching marijuana would make the person violently and deliorously addicted, ultimately leading to disorder and chaos. Other students were tamer and only talked about the harmful effects of smoking on the lungs.
I asked where they got this information, and most of the students responded that it was from CCTV (the Chinese national television station). I wish I could see some of the commercials that talked about drug use. I can ony imagine that it was like those 1930 films about marijuana called 'Reefer Madness'. On the bus from Nanchong to Chengdu a propaganda short about birth control was intermittently shown during a movie on the bus's tv screens. The short began with a number of sperm swimming incessantly through a beige-ish background. The camera then focuses on a single sperm that begins to take on certain animal-like qualities. It stops swimming and looks around like a worm would coming out of a hole. At this point the image faded away and a message popped up in English and Chinese: 'Don't leave anything to chance'. I must have watched the little lonely sperm movie at least ten or eleven times by the time the two hour bus ride was over.
Only a few of them mentioned it was their parents who had told them marijuana was bad. I made sure to explain that what made a drug 'bad' was relative and explained that coffee, cigarrettes, and beer all are techincally drugs. After going deeper into the pros and cons and having the students practice cross-examinations, it seemed that the ideas of marijuana-induced destruction and chaos had faded away.
It's raining and my food is getting cold. Back home now...
1 comment:
Today during a role-play a student playing a mechanic told us he'd messed up because he was drunk. Naturally I was moved to tell them your kitten story. Also, can we get a picture of the kitten up in this joint?
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