Tom and I are back from the NAVC (North American Veterinary Conference) and catching up on things. We had a lot of time to visit the exhibit hall and will talk about that a bit, later on. But, I do want to say we met our podcast professional, Dr. Bill, and we met Dr. Larry, and we met some other good Purina people, including Dr. Grace from Purina Veterinary Diets.

While meeting our Purina sponsors was a big treat, I have to tell you that the conference overall commanded most of my attention. As a former veterinary technician, I was fascinated by the modern marvels in veterinary science, and I was comforted by the usual veterinary practices I saw or heard about - ones that were still very similar to the kinds of things we did back in the day.

Our focus at the conference was dispelling the myth that cats have nine lives - and to that end we attended a number of educational sessions on cats, including ones on liver diseases, pancreatitis, nutrition, and overall general health. Some of what I heard and took notes on struck me right in the heart. I'm a cat lover, you know I have the delightful Wabby Wibby, but...after attending these sessions, I now feel like a neglectful cat owner. I need to visit Fab Cats, more often.

The Wabby is VERY stoic! Although she's more friendly since we moved to Colorado (she loves being carried around like a baby), she still keeps to herself. My daughter took care of her while we were away and she reported that it didn't seem like the Wabby cared one iota if anyone showed up during the day, or not! As long as she got fed.

Interestingly, one session discussed stresses in a cat's life and I was pretty surprised to learn that even our cats experience stress when...we move, or change their water dish, or introduce a new diet by just changing it...not doing a gradual move. We have not experienced any of that...and yet, I wonder if our move to CO, in a Uhaul truck, no less... caused more stress on the Wabby than we know. (yes, this is her happy face; you don't want to see her unhappy face!)

I'm going to be checking out the sites shared at the NAVC sessions and I'm going to pay more attention to Wabby. Maybe she is trying to tell me how she feels - in cat terms. Stay tuned for more on this, right from the meow's perspective (well, as much as a human can give a meow's perspective)