Cats, Cruises and iPhones

[jcb]

This is my version of a trip report.

Smokey is the alpha male cat of our house. He is DW’s darling but he has a heart condition for which he takes Atenolol, a beta blocker, daily. DW quarters the pills for the correct daily dose. She usually does this a batch at a time then puts the pills in a box next to Smokey’s “treat” (i.e., canned fancy feast) which we use for delivery of the medicine. I can’t emphasize enough how DW pampers this cat.

At the beginning of December, DW and I left Smokey in the care of DD so we could go to WDW and a cruise (with DW parents) on the Disney Wonder. One of DD's friends (who has helped before) came by to give Smokey his medicine the night before the cruise departed - only instead of giving Smokey one quarter of a pill, DD's friend gave Smokey the entire box of quartered pills. (We don't know the extent of the overdose.) Somehow Smokey survived and is doing great.

So when you listen to the podcast and they bring in a specialist to talk about how to care for your pets while you are on vacation, don't think, "I've got it covered" or "it won't happen to me" but, "I’d be a complete idiot to think this won’t happen to me" and "how can I make this completely fool-proof."

I got the first hint something was amiss as the Wonder was leaving Port Canaveral when DD called me (on my iPhone) to ask “what happened to all of Smokey's medicine” (I am still not realizing DD's friend gave Smokey the whole box of pills). It's during this phone call that I'm realizing my relaxing cruise is going to be anything but. And no way am I telling DW about this until I find out what has actually occurred, no sense in both of us going without sleep. (The first good night’s sleep I got on the whole trip was post-cruise in one of those “heavenly beds” at the Dolphin. I have got to get me one of those beds.)

DD and I stayed in touch over the next few days. We figured out what happened and I told DW about it. As I have blocked that scene from my memory I won’t go into the details. At least I kept my shirt on.

Staying in touch meant, of course, that I used my iPhone. Since my original plan was to just turn the phone and data services off entirely, I did no research into how much it would cost to use “cellular at sea” or the Bahamas cell phone service. I got the bill this morning.

So if you find yourself using your iPhone at sea here is the rackup:

Call to DD (“While Roaming in Cruise Roaming” as the bill describes it): 2 minutes @ $4.98 or 2.49 a minute. Voicemail charges were the same rate per minute. When I could not get a phone call to connect (not sure why), I started texting DD instead. The charge for this (shown as “Charges Incurred While Roaming in Bahamas” when we were docked in Nassau, and “Charges Incurred While Roaming in Cruise Roaming,” while at sea) was $.50 per message (over and above the standard texting charge AT&T imposed). There were also two new taxes on my current statement that were not on the prior statements: “INTERSTATE TELE SALES TAX” ($1.91) and “COUNTY INTERSTATE TELE SALES TAX” ($0.41). (Don't you love how the tax charges shout at you?)


Don’t take any of this as complaining. I was very lucky. Everyone’s healthy, I got off cheap and I remain married (at least for another day). I just thought with the podcast cruise looming, ya’ll might want to know of the iPhone charges and be reminded to make sure to leave nothing to chance in arranging for someone to care for your pets.

This is a true story – honest – I can’t help but wonder, however, what the record is for the most number of podcast topics being mentioned in one post. Let’s see (in no order): (1) pet care while on vacation; (2) the Wonder; (3) the Podcast cruise; (4) iPhones; and (5) a (not so shameless) plug for the Dolphin. Too bad I didn’t eat at Palo.