Grandchat

So I had a new experience this weekend. I donated blood for the first time. In case you were wondering, this wasn’t my idea. The human volunteered me for it. But I’m glad I did it. Let me just say that I have a new respect for humans and animals that donate on a regular basis.

According to the human I got stuck by a needle about 50 times. I thought I was donating blood. Who knew I was going in for acupuncture. Now you might ask why I didn’t know how many times I got stuck with the needle. Well that’s because they knock out us cats in order to get blood. Turns out most of us won’t sit still while someone gabs a needle into our jugulars.

And speaking of jugulars, turns out mine are pretty small. Part of the reason I got stuck with the needle so many times is that my veins are not very good. They are really small and according to the human, really hard to get blood out of. She should know. She was the one in charge of keeping me sedated and monitoring the ol’ vital signs. Because of my not so great veins, it took them a really long time to get blood from me. But they were able to do it and were able to transfuse my blood into a really sick kitty.

Because I was sedated, I had to stay at the emergency hospital for a little while until I recovered. I still felt a little loopy when the human came to pick me up, but I started to feel better once I was home with the familiar smells.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to donate blood again because of my veins, but I’m really proud that I was able to do it at least once. And you should do it too. For humans it’s easier to find a place to donate blood. For animals, contact your local vet or an emergency animal hospital to see if they have a blood bank program available.

It feels good to give.

Ariel