(THIS IS A COLD VIRUS–Ech! UGLY! Keep it in its place–away from YOU!)
Uh, oh, mama got whacked. She thinks it’s because the mayor of our little town gave her the “mwah-mwah” at a party the night before they left for Roma, and he clearly had laryngitis or he wouldn’t have delivered such a short speech (and a pretty good one, too), but I know from my research that you can’t get sick one day after being around someone with a cold. Several days, sure, but not the next day!
In fact, while doing this research for mama, I found some things that are important about how NOT to get sick in winter and when you do get something, how to think about it in positive terms.
For instance, a cold is contagious for a couple of days before you get the symptoms and for up to seven days from when the virus gets you, and it’s best to keep yourself away from others or at least don’t let your “mwah-mwah” instincts get the better of you.
Wash, wash, wash your hands just as we kitties do all day long. When mama washes her hands, she sings the birthday song in Italian twice (to herself, of course, or everyone think she’s a nutcake at the sink!) or you can sing in any language you wish, but sing it twice. Little kids can sing “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” twice as they wash, and then their hands are clean.
I happen to sing my Loulou song that mama sings to me a lot of the time, to the tune of Skip To My Loulou or just a melody she makes up, but I sing “Louloulouloulou, Louloulou! Louloulouloulou, Louloulou! Louloulouloulou, Louloulou! I’m one cute little Loulou kit–ty.” Deep lyrics, right? But my paws are clean, clean after I sing this.
And don’t even think of taking antibiotics for a cold! NO, NO, NO. Chicken soup (coats the throat and is full of vitamins and TLC), hot milk and honey (no, phlegm is NOT bad for a cold; au contraire, honey—haha), herbal teas with lemon and honey, and get this: MARSHMALLOWS. Some doctors have found that the slippery stuff in marshmallows helps a scratchy throat. Kids will love that, no? Antibiotics are for infections, not viruses. Plus, I’ve heard that we’re taking too many and now those bad bugs can do anything they want because they are resistant to earlier medicines.
Papa and mama both think that feeling cold and not covering up enough can lower your immune system, and I think they’re right, but you do NOT get a cold from the cold. You get it from a virus that is lurking somewhere near you while you’re cold, and if your system has dropped it’s protective barriers for a minute, that little sucker can jump in there and do damage, but getting cold does not always mean that you get a cold. You just get colder. But it’s best, always, to bundle up in cold weather. You anthros don’t wear a permanent fur coat, after all, that adjusts to the weather, as we do. C’est la vie.
Personally, I go for the chicken soup.
But you could try a scratch behind the ears and a long, long snooze. Works every time.
