The Time I Almost Cried During a Cat's Checkup [Main Story]

I had to take my cat to a new vet for the first time.
It seems that different clinics have different rules.

At my previous clinic, the atmosphere was such that you should only speak the bare minimum to avoid distractions, but at this clinic, the doctor asked me to praise the cat while he was examining it. Thinking it was an unusual clinic, I decided to do as I was told.

"You have such a bright-looking face..."
"Your hairstyle is also neatly groomed..."
"You are also very gentlemanly toward cats..."

As I was stammering out these compliments, the doctor said,

"...Not me, the cat..."

The doctor pleaded in a trembling voice, and I finally realized my mistake.
Moreover, because I was praising in a quiet, slow tone so as not to startle the cat, I sounded just like the war photographer Yoichi Watanabe.
Because I was trying to be considerate, it ended up having a strangely poignant atmosphere.

As I would find out in later conversations, the nurse had already reached her limit at this point.

My mistake was incredibly embarrassing, but I thought I should praise the cat, who was being more calm and diligent than anyone else during the exam, so I pulled myself together and spoke to the cat.

"You have such a bright-looking face..."
"Your fur is also very well-groomed."
"You are also very gentlemanly toward humans..."

Since I am not a person who can improvise, my compliments ended up sounding like a copy-paste of the praise I had just given the doctor.

The doctor and the nurse must have been thinking, "That's the same thing!" in their heads.
With this level of clumsiness, my camera would be the first thing smashed on a battlefield.

All the nurses in the room kept their eyes cast downward and made no attempt to look at my face.
Even the cat was looking down.
It was a lonely space where I couldn't make eye contact with anyone.
I felt a strong will from them, as if to say, "If we make eye contact, it's all over..."

In the midst of this, the doctor said,

"Um, could you use shorter words so it's easier for the cat to understand..."

So I praised the cat with a short phrase: "Nice whiskers."

But when I thought about it, the doctor also had a beard, so it became unclear who I was actually praising.

Everyone was enduring something, trembling slightly and suppressing various emotions.
Surrounded by people vibrating like this, the cat must have thought it had come to a truly bizarre place.
It was like being abducted by a UFO and surrounded by trembling aliens. You would at least want the aliens who abducted you to remain calm.

It was a very difficult checkup.
The cat during the exam, the owner who suddenly turned into Yoichi Watanabe, the doctor who was being persistently praised, and the nurses who had nowhere to escape because they had seen it all.
We were only there to have the cat's bald spot checked, so why did it turn into such an ordeal?
We were tossed about by the rough seas of what you might call the mischief of fate after a series of unfortunate misunderstandings.
For some reason, the doctor looked like he was about to cry.
Fortunately, there were no serious problems with the cat's bald spot.

After the exam, at the reception desk, the nurse from earlier said,

"Please apply this to the area where the hair fell out until it returns to normal. It will grow back properly..."

As she was explaining this and handing over the medicine, a regular-looking bald man in the waiting room said in a relatively loud voice while rubbing his head,

"I wonder if it'll go back to normal if I apply that too."

The nurse was finished.

The doctor and the nurses will likely continue to have a hard time because of this man.

By the way, this clinic is the one with the "Statue of Citizens Suffering Under the Tyranny of Holding Cats."
This was my first session with this clinic.
And every time something happened to my cat, I relied on this clinic.
I try to be quiet so as not to cause any extra trouble, but even when I'm quiet, it seems there's something that touches the doctor's heart, and he often looks like he's about to cry, so now I just act freely along with the cat.
"That actually feels less awkward, so please do that."
Apparently, it feels awkward when I try to be quiet.
I must be careful.

And, this is important, but the cat is doing well.

By the way, you might see the same title twice on the note screen, but that's because I posted it to "Happiness with Cats" on note, so the content is the same. Sorry for the confusion.

When living with creatures of different species like cats and dogs, you will inevitably have to visit an animal hospital for regular checkups and the like, but I hope this conveys that even those moments can become memories if you are together.