It was so delicious, so tempting. But now my little mouth is burned from that taste of hot food.

Where did I get my hot food? I'm not telling. I do not want to be banned from sampling the neighborhood dinners.

I have not been able to drink or eat properly since Saturday. Now it is Thanksgiving, a Thursday, and I cannot fully enjoy the fest before me.

---

Dear Reader, our friendly neighborhood cat came over a few nights ago very unhappy. He walked to the water dish and looked at me like I needed to fix it. There was a leaf in the dish, so I told him to go drink the dog's water and went on my way.

The next day, he still kept sitting at the dish and staring like I needed to fix something. Foamy drool dripped from his mouth as he let out a pitiful little sound. He was unable to drink and barely able to eat. There was a wound on his cheek. Maybe he had an abscess from a cat fight? I decided to take him to the vet Monday if he wasn't feeling better.

Monday came and went. Neighbor Cat hid from me while the vet's office was open, but he did come in after they closed to cuddle and awkwardly eat some soft food.

I finally took him to the vet on Tuesday. They got his little mouth open, and we saw that the roof of his mouth and his tongue were red as if they had been burned. We don't know what he burned himself on, but at least we had an idea what we are dealing with. The vet injected fluids under his skin and gave him some antibiotics and something for the inflammation. They also gave us three pills to feed him in the following days to keep the inflammation down.

He drooled all over my pile of clean clothes once he was rehydrated! But I am glad to say that there was a noticeable improvement each of those three days. It still took several days for him to be able to eat hard food again.

---