Mother says "the moon must be full".  Every furry visitor these days seems to be sick.  Yesterday, father kept busy making some dogs teeth go from brown to white, while mother had lots of sick puzzles to figure out.  Two cats came in for bringing up red syrup.  Their lips were lined in red, but that's where their similarites ended.  The bigger cat, Wally, couldn't seem to catch his breath and within a few minutes of his being at the clinic he got the special air blowing in his face  Mother had her helpers take some samples of Wally's red syrup and even though they only wanted a little, all of this poke marks kept dripping.  "Could he have eaten rat poison?" mother asked Wally's mom.  "Not possible" she replied.  "Could someone have hurt him?  "No, I live alone".  "Does he go outside?"  "Only on a screened lanai".  Questions were answered, as quickly as they were asked.  Soon, mother had all her reports back on Wally's syrup and everything was normal.  His black and white pictures told a different story, "He's got fluid in his lungs, and since he's bringing up blood, it's probably blood in his lungs.  Since Wally's clotting times are normal, something traumatic must have happened to him."  "Well, Wally and my other cat, Wilma, do play rough.  I have an open second story at my condo, could he get blood in his lungs if he fell?"  Wally's mom inquired.  "Absolutely " mother answered.  "But I thought cat's were always supposed to land on their feet? Wally's mom asked.  "Nah, that's sort of an old wives tale.  You only hear the stories about the ones that land on their feet.  No one ever talks about the ones that don't"  mother answered.  Silence followed, and I think I heard Bea sort of snicker.  She never did like cats.  The good news for Wally was that he seemed to respond well to his treatment, and it looks like he'll get to be one of the cats people talk about.

The other cat with the red syrup in it's mouth, was not so lucky.  He was just a teenager, and his name was Frisco.  Mother knew right away what was wrong with him, she could see it in his mouth, "It looks like something's caught in his throat, I can see a cut on his tongue too."  Frisco got a sleeping pinch, so mother could take a closer look.  She was not expecting what she found.  As she pulled Frisco's tongue out of his mouth to peek behind it, his entire tongue came out in two pieces!  It had been cut in half!  "There's nothing in there that I can see" and even the black and white pictures were normal.  Frisco's dad didn't have any idea of what could have cut the cat's tongue and water started to stream from his eyes when he was made to realize that Frisco couldn't live without his tongue.  Silence filled the air again, as we all said a quiet good-bye to the young cat who had managed to purr the whole time his tongue lay in pieces. 
Definitely, not a good time to be a cat.  Mother says that curiosity disease is a tough one.  I sure hope I don't catch it.