Could Your Writing Use a Crazy Pill?

In which I reveal that in addition to being juvenile, an overbearing parent, a bad housekeeper, and plagued by invisible demons, I am also a bad pet owner. But in a way that makes me a better writer.

I was never going to blog about my kids. Oh well. Then I was never going to blog about my pets. But you know how I feel about the "I will never" vow. As usual, I promise I get to writing eventually.

My cat is depressed. I have two cats, a brother and sister from the same litter, nearly identical except that the female has always been insane a little skittish, and the male is an attention hound. Lately, though, he's been hiding, limping, generally acting sick.

So Thursday, instead of finishing my novel, I took the cat to the vet. The nurse assured me the appointment would be over in 40 minutes, in plenty of time to drop them back off and etc. I was overcaffeinated and stressed out.

Remember in Zoolander when Will Ferrell's character wonders if he's taking crazy pills?

The vet was very sweet. My cat is physically fine, she told me, but the move has upset him. She thinks his behavior is a form of acting out. Had I considered the possibility that my cat was having emotional troubles?

I had not. I have two human children, boxes to unpack, a novel to finish, a house to sell, and a husband who's been to the hospital twice this week for heart issues,* to say nothing of troubling world events, voters to register, and, yes, I realize others have much more about which to worry, but the cats are low on my stress list. Also, they are cats. She went on.

Perhaps I could take 30 minutes or so a day to focus on my cat, to show him some affection and let him know things are safe in the new house? He needs babied right now, made to feel loved. Sometimes older cats develop social anxiety disorders; there are medications, of course, that can help with stress, antidepressants and the such, and kitty counseling, play therapy...

I looked around for the candid camera.

While she went on, it occurred to me to use this in a book. Not the cat specifically, but the idea that these little stresses always seem to come when you're dealing with other things that are the "real" story. Right when you think you're starting to make headway on the actual problem, the vet wants you to spend more time with the cat, and even though it's silly, it adds to the tension. So now I want a scene where my character, right in the thick of dealing with all the stuff I've thrown at her, has a "crazy pill" moment, where the person to whom she's talking is wanting her to be worried about something that is absolutely not the real problem. I'm thinking of the way the Dursleys interrupt the real work Harry Potter is trying to do with their pettinesses and even though their issue is negligible, it adds to the mix of troubles and you want to shake them. Can you help me think of other examples? Do you have a good one in your own book?

As for the poor kitty, I'm trying. I didn't tell the vet that the cats standoffishness may also have something to do with Captain Destructo's new "KITTY RUN AWAY!" shriek, which is now followed by Tink yelling, "MOMMMMM! HE'S CHASING THE CAT!" louder than bombs. To make it up to him, I fed him twice this morning, and Tink let him sleep with her favorite stuffed friend.

* The Mighty Thor is fine, by the way, but I was freaking, of course.