Poor Oscar. His hair has been falling out for weeks. The vet says it is some kind of allergy and has been putting off sending him to the skin specialist until Sal’s tried everything else.

By this morning, though, everything else had been tried, so he was carted off across London in his little cat carrier to see someone who might know better. She didn’t, of course - not right off - and so she knocked him out with an anasthaetic and poked pins in him to see which would cause a reaction.

She got a completely different reaction to the one she’d been expecting, though. Each pin contained something that might possibly be causing an allergy, the idea being that the one that goes red over the next couple of days is the culprit. The problem, though, is that the test requires 41 separate injections, just like when it’s done on a human, hence the need for a general anasthaetic.

The reaction, though, was immediate. Although out cold he attacked the vet, completely unaware of what he was doing. Poor little guy, his nervous system was still whirring away in the background and most certainly didn’t like the idea of needles and pins.

Now he’s sulking, as well he might be. He won’t look at anyone, and merely sits forlornly in his box, facing the wall.

I heard all this by phone this morning, and in spite of the fact my day was spent in back to back meetings, most of them discussing upcoming meetings, I can’t help but think I had a far better day than Oscar did.

1. Oscar
   Oscar seems to have settled into a fairly set routine. He comes down for breakfasts, hangs around for a bit of a chat (very one-sided,...
   
   
2. Oscar is confused
   Poor old Oscar is properly confused by the cat flat. He goes out into the outhouse and then stands at the little door sniffing the...
   
   
3. ISDN
   Well, this morning was a whole new experience, doing the breakfast show trail by ISDN rather than over the phone. I took the battery out...