At Least Someone is Thankful

Yesterday was the day I took Maxx to the vet to be neutered. If you recall, last time didn't go so well. As in, he didn't get out of the house. He freaked and hid. Yesterday, I had a plan.

I shut the kitchen and dining room doors. He had very few places to run and hide in those two rooms, so I thought it'd be perfect. I put out the cat carrier on Sunday, so he could sniff it, and not think anything is up.

Humans. We think we're SOOO smart!

Yesterday morning, I waited until late to come down and feed the cats. This resulted in much meowing and moaning and carrying on. You'd think they were starving to death. So as I'm feeding them, Maxx slinks in. (Being lanky, Maxx slinks everywhere) And I swoop down and grab him by the scruff of the neck, and carry him to the carrier. He was cool until I lowered him into the carrier. He launched straight up out of the box, and bolted for an escape route. My plan was working, what with having NO escape route and all. Ha! Humans ARE superior!

Uh huh.

He vanishes. VANISHES I TELL YOU. I looked under stuff, behind stuff, moved stuff, even used a flashlight to peer into crevices, but no Maxx. Obbie came in to see how it was going, and HE even used a flashlight, and looked for awhile.

No cat.

Obbie left for work, and I fired up the laptop, nuked a cup of coffee, and sat down to read. It was shortly thereafter I saw a shadow in the back of the kitchen. I strolled over to where I saw it, and there he was. Wedged UNDER a metal tea cart, in about 3 inches of space. Flat cat. I picked up the tea cart, moved in, and grabbed Maxx before he flew away again. He turned his head around 90 degrees, bit my thumb, clawed my wrist and got away. He then climbed up the kitchen window. Between the shade and the window. So I got a big beach towel, and reached up into the window, grabbed him and rolled him like a mummy, and stuffed him into the cat carrier.

We then left for the vet. Maxx didn't say one word the whole trip. No yowling or crying or anything else. Silent. Once we got to the vet, a dog was barking, barking, barking, and Maxx freaked in the box. The snotty bitch behind the counter took him and the box and deposited them in a cage IN THE SAME ROOM WITH THE BARKING BARKING BARKING DOG. Poor Maxx.

At four I went to retrieve him. A nice lady was behind the desk this time. "Oh, you're here for Maxx" You can come back with me to get him. He's a little scared." Oh? Apparently, after his surgery, the brain trust had him in a cage ACROSS FROM A PIT BULL who was going ballastic all afternoon. Maxx (who hasn't seen a dog since he came here to live) was panicking and freaking out in his cage, and the nice lady tried to get him out and move him to another cage. Maxx gave her three nice long scratches on her wrist for her efforts, and was not moved. He was cowering in a corner when I came back to get him. Nice Lady tried twice to remove him from the cage, but he wasn't going anywhere. "Do you think you can get him out?" She asked. "Yes, probably. Let me try." I reached in, with the towel and repeated the morning mummy trick. Poor little guy. He was just frozen. Said nothing all the way home. I had the side of the box open, and was scratching his head and talking to him hoping to relax him. Poor thing.

Once we got him, I opened the box, and he vanished. I think he went upstairs in the office to recover in the quiet. This morning, he won't even come to me for his food. He saw me with it and ran. Twice. I feel really badly that he's so upset, but he had to be fixed. Now it's done, and he can get back to being an inside kitty, without marking his territory several times a day. Tomorrow I clean, and get rid of the last remnants of his marking. Hopefully he's got a short memory and yesterday's terror will be forgotten soon.

Later today, Obbie and I go visit Mom. She's already in rare form, and as usual, it'll be a crap shoot whether we get Psycho Snarky Mom or just Snarky Mom. I have to make cranberry relish, green beans, and maybe a dessert before we go, so I probably should think about working on that NOW. And maybe a quick trip to the grocery before the rest of the world is out and about.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!