Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

   So, perhaps the bad experience first. We drove Wasa all the way to Tokyo to get her spayed and declawed, since there really aren't many vets here who do declawing. None of my other cats have ever had problems from being declawed, so I figured that this time wouldn't be such a big deal, either. Stupid logic, apparently. (And if you're thinking how awful I am to have had her declawed, well, all I can say is, after this experience, I am seriously debating ever getting any future cats of mine declawed. I was starting to have doubts before I even took Wasa in, and everything that happened really didn't serve to assuage my fears. And yes, I feel like an awful, horrible person and a crappy 'mommy' to boot for putting Wasa through this).
...Well, I'm not much of one to put stock in dreams, but maybe I'll change my mind after this incident...both Yuki and I had bad dreams about the vet before taking her in. I dreamt that when we took her to the vet, he came out with an IV in his arm, toting a liter of blood around as he gave himself a transfusion. Wasabi somehow got loose and ran into the back room, where the vet had a bunch of human clones in cages. He was breeding them as a side job or something. And I sort of remember that the vet was a vampire, hence the blood bag. The alarm woke me up before much else went on, luckily, but it didn't leave me with a good feeling about the upcoming trip to the vet!
  Then, Yuki dreamt that the vet's office was something like that out of Minority Report, when Tom Cruise goes in to get his eyeballs replaced. If you've seen this movie, then I'm sure that you instantly know what I mean. If you haven't...just think dirty, unsanitary, and scary. Not exactly good premonitions going on here!
  So, what did the vet's actually look like? It was a one-room affair, reception/waiting area separated from the surgery by a see-through glass partition. Older equipment, and it was just the older vet with his wife as an assistant. He was quite pushy and insisted that we stay and could watch the whole procedure if we wanted to. I'm not going to go into details, but suffice it to say that I watched, Yuki didn't, and I really wish that I hadn't, but I wanted to make sure that Wasabi was still breathing. There's something entirely different about watching surgery on someone or a pet that you love as compared to one you're not emotionally attached to!! I've had quite a few experiences with gore/blood/guts, and that's not what shook me up so much....I think it was more realizing just how fragile Wasabi really is, seeing her spread out defenseless and sedated on that table instead of being the little nipping firecracker that she usually is. Needless to say, I was crying and pretty shaken up by the time the whole thing was done. There were some other events that made me seriously question this vet's integrity, but unless you're considering having your cat declawed in Tokyo and need a name to avoid, I'll leave out those details, too.
On a somewhat brighter note, Wasa is starting to recover and has even been biting again, a sure sign that things are slowly on the mend! I'm worried about the fact that she's having shivers off and on, though, so we're going to the vet's here in the morning to get her checked again. Everything online concerning shivering points to either: trauma, a fever, or pain. So it could be any one of the 3; I'm really hoping for no fever, which would mean an infection. Please, please pray that she gets better soon!