A Trip to the Vet

 Waiting for the vet to arrive.

Princess Hermes hates riding in the car. I suspect that this is because at the age of 2, she was taken from the home where she had lived all but the first 6 weeks of her life and dumped at the animal shelter. When I picked her up, the poor thing was so scared she threw up, pooped, and peed in the carrier on the way home. 

I’ve taken her to the vet 3 times since then. We were fostering to adopt with her, and once we made the decision to adopt, I filled out the paperwork and took her to the vet. We didn’t even make it out of the carport before she pooped, peed, and threw up all over the carrier. Keep in mind, we live 2 miles away from our Vet’s office.  

Last year, we made a full mile before she totally lost it.  The poor thing threw up again on the way home. My vet joked that it was nice of her to present a full stool sample when she walked in!

Last week, I was prepared for anything. I put her in her carrier – and I had a towel at the bottom. This time, I thought ahead and took an extra towel wrapped up in a plastic bag. We made it with no issues. And then, I picked up her carrier to take her into the vet. That's when she finally lost control. Fortunately, she only threw up.  

I whipped out the soiled towel once we were in the office and put the new one inside her carrier. The soiled towel went into the plastic bag to be washed when we got home.

She approves of the towel on the scale.

And Hermie? She had a great time. She explored everything and talked with the vet when she came in with a wide range of purrs and small “mrows” and only one hiss. She had no issues going home.

Considering that we’re moving in less than a month, I’m really hoping that we will do okay with the 30 minute drive to the apartment. There’s nothing worse than an upset cat trapped in a car.

Luna

Since Tiger's passing, Luna has been very sad and quiet.  She has been hanging out in all of Tiger's favorite hidey-holes.  She's not been as talkative as usual. She's been disappearing for long periods of time, and when I find her, she's in one of Tiger's favorite quiet spots.  Because of this, we decided to take her to the vet.  We wanted to make certain that she is healthy, and find out what we can do to help make her adjustment to a life without Tiger a little bit easier.

Our amazing vet spent a half an hour with Luna, talking with her, cooing at her, giving her some awesome scritches and asking us questions.  Once Luna gets through her kitty mourning, she will be fine.  We don't know how long her mourning will last, but we need to keep her as happy and content as possible.  And we need to keep her challenged.

Our vet then shared with us information about Enrichment toys for cats.  These aren't the same as chew toys for dogs - or even catnip toys (of which she has many).  No, these are food puzzles.  It seems that cats in the wild only catch 15% of the food that they hunt.  Thus, they are able to keep themselves slim and trim.  In our house, the cats only have to walk over to the food dish and eat their fill.  It's seemed to be a good method, but Luna needs more stimulation right now, and she needs to lose a few of those little pounds that she has recently gained.

And so, we've spent the past couple of days making food puzzles for her.  Right now, she has an open egg carton filled with food.  She has to put her paw into the egg holes and get her food out.  We have each little cup filled a little over halfway with food.  She puts one paw down in the lid of the egg carton to hold everything still while she fishes for her food. 

We've been working on making the next one right now.  We've taken a small water bottle and cut a couple of holes in the sides.  The idea is that we'll put her food in the (empty) water bottle and leave it in the spot where the egg carton is now.  She'll have to bat it around in order to get the food out.  Our goal is to eventually have enough different kinds of enrichment feeders that we'll be able to put a new one out every day for two weeks without repeating anything.

If you'd like to find out more, you can follow this link that our vet gave us:
http://foodpuzzlesforcats.com/

Taking the Cats to the Vet

I took the cats to the vet today.  It was a traumatic experience for everyone involved.

The cats like to go outside early in the morning, so I took the precaution of locking each of them into a separate room overnight with a bowl of food, a bowl, of water, and a litterbox.  I was hoping to get a stool sample from each of them overnight.  I should have known better...

A half hour before it was time to go to the vet, I tracked down the animal carriers and went after Luna (the more agreeable one) and put her in her box.  No fights with that little girl, she's always ready for an adventure.  I scoped out her litterbox, but she had made absolutely no deposits over night.

I went after Tiger next.  One huge catfight later, I had two bloody gashes on my hand and a cat that had buried himself under the middle of the bed.  I finally dislodged him from the bed, only to turn around and find that Luna had let herself out of her carrier and was firmly lodged in Tiger's carrier.

Actually, this turned out to be a very good thing!  Once Tiger saw Luna in his carrier, he immediately lunged from my arms, and started squabbling with Luna, until she left the carrier and he could get in.

I locked his carrier and attempted to get Luna into hers.  No sooner did I shut her door than she began prizing open the weak edge at the top.  Desperate, I found a length of blue ribbon and tied her cage together so she couldn't open it again.

5 short minutes later, we were in the waiting room at the vet's office.

When we were called back, the tech decided to go with Luna first.  (Remember, she's the agreeable one.)  She purred through her initial exam, preened herself, and generally had a great time.  When the tech told Luna "OK, I'm done with you, I need to see Tiger next", Luna hopped right off of the table, walked over to one of the chairs, and assumed her sphinx pose while watching Tiger.

It took both of us to dislodge Tiger from the carrier.  We had to turn it upside down to get him out.  He hissed, he fussed, and he made snarly noises the entire time the tech looked at him.

Then came the fun part:  The vet came in!

Remember, Luna is still sitting on the chair, purring away and swishing her tail.  She was enjoying the spectacle!

The vet felt Tiger's abdomen.  Tiger growled.  She checked his teeth.  He hissed.  She gave him his shots.  Tiger made snarly noises at her.  The minute she finshed and said "OK Tiger, I'm done with you, you can go now" he jumped down off of the table and ran into his carrier.

The vet looked at Luna and said "OK Luna - you're next!"  (I swear I am not making this up!)  Luna hopped off of the chair and sauntered over to the table.  The vet picked her up and put her on the table, attempting to feel Luna's abdomen.  Luna immediately rolled over onto her back, squiremed around, and got her head under the vet's hand.  The vet tried to check Luna's teeth.  Luna immediately rolled over onto her back, squirmed around, and put her back under the vet's hand.  While the vet was trying to keep Luna still long enough to give her the shots, she asked me "Did you manage to get a stool sample from her?"

"No", I answered.  "She hasn't done anything at all in the last 12 hours.  I had her locked in a room overnight with the litter box, and she didn't even pee."

It's like that was the cue that cat had been waiting for.  With an insane gleam in her green eyes, she let loose at both ends, giving the vet both kinds of samples.  Luna hopped down off the table and hopped back into her box. 

We all stood there, too stunned to speak for a few minutes.

"Well", said the tech, "At least we have our samples!"

Those cats!  I guess we know who's really in charge!

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!