jeepers, creepers...

Last night I went over to Elizabeth's for a CSI viewing party. Basically, the two of us sit around, drink wine, eat snacks and watch the new episode of CSI. It's always a great hang.

Elizabeth has two wonderful cats, Othello and Leo. I love cats and have a particular fondness for Othello. He is a soft, fluffy, black cat. He's getting up there in age and is missing most, if not all, of his teeth. Consequently, his cute little tongue is usually hanging out the side of his mouth. It's very endearing. I was petting him, as I usually do, as he sat beside me on the couch. I remember rubbing my eyes at one point and then all of a sudden they were very itchy. I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and was shocked by my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were very red and my eyelids had begun to swell. I could feel my nasal passages filling up. By the time I got home my eyeballs were swelling! Who knew that your eyeballs could swell! I popped a Reactine, covered my eyes with a cold, wet facecloth and crawled into bed thinking that all would be well when I got up in the morning. No such luck. My eyes were completely swollen to the point that I could not see out of my right eye at all. It actually took about 5 minutes of standing in the bathroom with the light on before I could open my left eye enough to see how bad it really was. Not pretty! In addition, I thought that Niagara Falls was coming out of my eyes! My tear ducts were in overdrive. Needless to say, I did not go to work today. No one needs to see this!

It's a few hours later now, both eyes are open, and the swelling has gone down considerably, I'm sure in part to the Reactine. I was told by a doctor a long time ago that I probably had a mild allergy to cats but I didn't really buy it as I have never had a reaction like this. While in university, I took care a friend's cat for a month until he found it a new home and I never had so much as a sniffle. Weird. Of course, this won't stop me from playing with Othello or any other cat for that matter. But next time I might bring gloves.