D - A Very Serious Allergy

When I was young, my family was NOT a pet family, but I loved, loved, loved cats.  I would try to catch the precious little wild kittens that lived around my grandparents' house, & I definitely ordered enough books from Scholastic to get the "free" poster each time one of the fuzzy little guys was available. Eventually, my mom caved and let me get one (& then another, and still another, seeing as they never stayed around the house before running off or being run over).

So, I'm not sure when/why/how my body changed on me, but I can no longer be in a house with one of these little lovelies without turning into a sneezing, swollen-eyed, closed-off-throat absolute beauty.

Over time, while witnessing my various reactions to the feline family, Katie has decided that she too is allergic. I was at a baby shower with her a month or so ago, and by the time we left I couldn't even talk over a whisper because my throat had closed off too much. I went straight to the nearest pharmacy to get that taken care of, and K decided that her throat was really hurting too. To humor her, I bought her some of those yummy Ludens lozenges that we all ate like candy when we were young.  These REALLY helped her.

So the next morning when she woke up with a cold, there was no convincing her that she was sick - it was just her serious cat allergy which was clearly far more grave than any measly condition I might claim to have.  Fast forward another couple of weeks to another cold/sore throat for Miss K.  This time we hadn't been anywhere near a cat, but she had seen one cross the road when we were driving to school. Now THAT, my friends, is an allergy.