I had to deliver Kinikini to the Hawaii Kai Veterinary Clinic at 7 a.m. this morning for dental surgery that was scheduled almost a month ago. I’m afraid he’ll lose more of his increasingly scarce teeth, the result of those early years in the Aiea cat colony.

Kini had to fast in advance of the surgery, so I had to pick up all the cat food before I went to bed last night. That, of course, meant I had a hungry cat trying to wake me up about 3 a.m. with ferocious loving obviously intended to wake me up with a barrage of kneading, purring, drooling, and head butting, with an occasional love bite in the mix. When I realized this was really about food rather than lovies, I had to close him out of the room. That worked for me, and I was able to get a couple of hour additional sleep.

But I was up about five, and still had to put up with another 90-minutes or so of harrassment. Kali and Bessie were polite about it. But Poor Kinikini couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t responding properly to his increaingly aggressive food begging. It was almost a relief when departure time arrived. He wasn’t happy when I shoved him into the carrier and headed to the car.

He fussed for the first part of the ride, but then went into silent mode.

We’ll get a call from Dr. Sakamoto after the surgery is pau. Fingers crossed.