No More Happy Teeth

Instead it will now be happy tooth (singular) for Mocha Java.

I don't know if other cat owners call it 'happy teeth' when a cat flips over on its back out of happiness/contentment, and displays both canines in an upside-down vampire like grin. But that's what we call it.

Mocha Java needed some serious dental work done. We knew something was going on for quite a few weeks now: yellowing teeth, crabbiness, moodiness, flinching when I touched around his mouth sometimes, and super stinky breath from hell. Unfortunately one of the casualties of yesterday's medical attention was his right front tooth.

I'm pretty upset. It's kind of like he's been disfigured. And there was no warning until we got home last night and saw it (they did tell us he did lose two teeth--one had to be extracted and another fell out during cleaning. Just not which ones.). And I've asked myself what should we have been doing to prevent things from getting that bad?

Well, we could have/should have been brushing or rubbing his teeth. Unfortunately we didn't take time out of our routines to do this. It's not the easiest thing to do, and the cat usually doesn't exactly ask for it to be done, either.

I'm rationalizing the whole thing by telling myself that maybe his diabetes speeded up the tooth decay. Or that he just has naturally bad teeth (look at Valrhona's: she was only three years old when she lost three of her teeth to rot).

Poor little Plumey-plume!