Cats are so...er...communicative!

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon May 08, 2006 12:49 pm

They've started our flooring installation today, and since they're doing the hallway first (which means all the bedroom doors will have to be open, denying the cat all his favorite hiding places), I decided to board Jonah at the vet's today. Jonah, however, was not at all happy with this idea. As soon as I brought in "the bad box" (aka the cat carrier), he hid behind a table upstairs. It took dismantling the table to get him out. I carried him down to "the bad box" and, after sustaining several wounds to my arms (not to mention a ripped T-shirt), managed to pop him into it and close the door. He, of course, immediately started screaming as if he were being tortured. I carried him down to the car, and his hysterical cries brought everyone in the neighborhood to their doors to see which crazed weirdo was torturing a cat. As I was putting the carrier into the car, I noticed that Jonah was all wet. One sniff confirmed it...he'd decided to further register his displeasure by urinating all over the carrier. Well, nothing for it, and it was only a short drive to the vet's, where he would have a nice, quiet, cage in which to clean himself up. He had other plans, however, and managed to both defecate and vomit during the course of the mile-long car ride. Good thing I thought to put an old quilt under the carrier, or we'd never get the smell out of the car seats!

Good thing I didn't tell him that the vet is planning to trim his nails today...the way he hates that, you'd think it was the most horrible thing anyone had ever done to a cat. Sorry, kitty, but when the nails get so long you can't even fully retract them, it's time for a trim. You will survive.

Tomorrow he gets to stay in the nice, dark, guest bedroom while the floorers work in the living room.

Redwolf

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Mon May 08, 2006 12:58 pm

Thanks! It's nice to know that there are cats out there with worse behavior than ours.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon May 08, 2006 12:58 pm

I bet the vet assistants loved receiving that particular delivery.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:06 pm

I wish I could hypnotise mine or put her in suspended animation for the trip to the vet. She's done the above in the carrier before, too. Strange thing is, once she's out of the carrier and in the examination room, she's just fine, and does very well with the personnel and the handling. They always comment on how sweet she is. Must be the ride in the car that gets to her.

I've had other cats who not only took car rides in stride, but got into it, scoping everything out and even playing. Those ones didn't require a carrier.

I had one Siamese who hated car rides if they went on too long, though. One time he got up onto my lap, stood on his hind legs and planted his forepaws on my chest, and let out the biggest "MMEAOUWWW!!!" right into my face as if to say, "For the love of all that is holy, wouldja STOP already?!?!?!?"

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:26 pm

Yes. I could name countless examples. One that comes to mind that was particularly to the point was when my husband and I (pre-children) went away for the weekend. A neighbor stopped in to refill the cat bowls a couple times. We returned to find that our little bobtail had left a small pile of scat right in the middle of an otherwise unrumpled bed.
It was such an obvious and directed expression of displeasure.

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:47 pm

Perhaps a little Feliway sprayed in the carrier before transport would be helpful.

Kevin Krell

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:55 pm

The whole thing is rather traumatic for Jonah. He's usually well-behaved at the vet's office, but it's because he's petrified. When I take him in for his annual exam and shots, he tucks his head under my arm and holds perfectly still...I think he thinks that the staff can't see him if he can't see them!

Our previous cat, Khani, was great in the car. We drove all the way from North Carolina to California with her and Cedar. Every morning, she'd walk right into the carrier, where she'd snooze until we stopped for the night. We'd get to a motel, she'd take a look around, find the bed, jump up and snooze some more. I'm glad we don't have to make a cross-country trip with Jonah! I think if we did, I'd break my usual rule of not flying my animals...bad as it is, I think he'd find a six-hour flight less traumatic than six days in the car (and I'm not sure I could stand six days of cat pee and tragic caterwauling!

).

Redwolf

djm · Post by **djm** » Mon May 08, 2006 2:02 pm

Redwolf wrote:he tucks his head under my arm and holds perfectly still...I think he thinks that the staff can't see him if he can't see them!

Its not a matter of them seeing him. He doesn't want to see them. He is petrified, and doesn't want to look. All he wants is to smell your presence. Mine accompany this with loud purring, not because they are happy, but because cats know that humans like to be purred to, and they want to suck up to me so I'll take them away from this horrible place.

Another problem when you take only one cat to the vets is the vet's smell from handling the cat. The smell is still there when the cat is brought home. The other cat(s) will freak out as if they don't recognize the cat who has been away all of two hours. The noises that come out of the cat that stayed home are some of the creepiest, Stephen King-type yowls I ever heard. The hair on the back of my neck was standing just at the sound.

djm

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon May 08, 2006 2:08 pm

Cats will purr not only out of pleasure, but will sometimes do so when in pain and under great stress, too.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:09 pm

djm wrote:
Redwolf wrote:he tucks his head under my arm and holds perfectly still...I think he thinks that the staff can't see him if he can't see them!
Its not a matter of them seeing him. He doesn't want to see them. He is petrified, and doesn't want to look. All he wants is to smell your presence. Mine accompany this with loud purring, not because they are happy, but because cats know that humans like to be purred to, and they want to suck up to me so I'll take them away from this horrible place.

Another problem when you take only one cat to the vets is the vet's smell from handling the cat. The smell is still there when the cat is brought home. The other cat(s) will freak out as if they don't recognize the cat who has been away all of two hours. The noises that come out of the cat that stayed home are some of the creepiest, Stephen King-type yowls I ever heard. The hair on the back of my neck was standing just at the sound.

djm

Yep...Jonah stress-purrs too. He also stress sheds. The vet usually ends up covered head to toe in black cat fur by the time she's done giving him a once over.

Poor little guy...it's too bad there's no way to help him understand that they only like to help him. With a dog, you can start when they're pups and bring them to the vet's office for some petting and a biscuit occasionally (and take them on car rids to the park and to the beach), so they don't associate the whole thing with fear and pain. With a cat, it's just pray we get through it!

I do think he's better off there today, though. There's just no safe place for me to put him here while they're working in the hallway, and the noise would terrify him. At least tomorrow he'll be able to hide under the bed, where he feels safe.

Redwolf

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:31 pm

Toots. 16 years old and never been to the vet for anything!

The world's friendliest cat too! (sez me...yeah?) Toots and I even appeared in The Guardian weekend magazine a few years ago in the "match the pet to its owner" column!

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Mon May 08, 2006 9:23 pm

Toots looks like the kind of cat I wouldn't even try to fool! What a beauty!

We are pretty lucky with our two cats, Flora and Lilly. They definitely don't like riding in the car, and they are very vocal about it, but they seem to recover quickly and they don't pee or get sick. It is still a very nerve-wracking drive, but I just tell myself they are having a worse time than I am. I have wondered if one started out with a kitten and took trips in the car every day if they could get used to it.

The hardest experience for me was nursing our cat Hannah, who died a few years ago, when she was sick. She, of course, didn't understand why I was doing various things to her and it was a terrible time for her and emotionally very difficult for my husband and me. We did find better ways of doing things so that I could tell she was not having such a hard time and she did end up recovering to the extent that she could live the same way she had before although it ended up being, for other reasons, not that long a time. I've never been quite sure if we made the right decision in going to the lengths we did to nurse her back to health. But, given the information we had, we made what we thought was the best decision for her at the time. I suppose a person just has to accept that.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:53 pm

Cynth wrote:
The hardest experience for me was nursing our cat Hannah, who died a few years ago, when she was sick. She, of course, didn't understand why I was doing various things to her and it was a terrible time for her and emotionally very difficult for my husband and me. We did find better ways of doing things so that I could tell she was not having such a hard time and she did end up recovering to the extent that she could live the same way she had before although it ended up being, for other reasons, not that long a time. I've never been quite sure if we made the right decision in going to the lengths we did to nurse her back to health. But, given the information we had, we made what we thought was the best decision for her at the time. I suppose a person just has to accept that.

Sounds like us with Khani. She very suddenly developed problems with her feet that turned out to be tumors...and, upon further investigation, turned out to have been spawned by a cancerous tumor in her chest. We spent weeks soaking her feet, because all of us, including the vet, thought the tumors were abcesses. Like most cats, she hated water, but she tolerated it because she seemed to sense that we were trying to help. When it became clear that she had cancer, we thought long and hard, but ended up deciding to amputate the affected toes, since the tumor in her lung wasn't causing her much distress at the time, and the vet thought the amputation might buy her six to eight months of comfortable life. Tragically, it was only two weeks before the cancer returned to her feet with a vengence.

During her final weeks, she would often lie next to me on the sofa and clasp my hand to her chest. Every now and then she would reach up with her paw and pat my cheek. I think she knew she was dying and was trying to tell me it was OK to let go. I've often wondered if we did the right thing, but perhaps that little paw against my cheek really did tell me all I needed to know.

Redwolf

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:56 pm

Gotta pick up the cat before the cat gets a view of the carrier.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:31 am

Redwolf wrote:
Cynth wrote:
The hardest experience for me was nursing our cat Hannah, who died a few years ago, when she was sick. She, of course, didn't understand why I was doing various things to her and it was a terrible time for her and emotionally very difficult for my husband and me. We did find better ways of doing things so that I could tell she was not having such a hard time and she did end up recovering to the extent that she could live the same way she had before although it ended up being, for other reasons, not that long a time. I've never been quite sure if we made the right decision in going to the lengths we did to nurse her back to health. But, given the information we had, we made what we thought was the best decision for her at the time. I suppose a person just has to accept that.
Sounds like us with Khani. She very suddenly developed problems with her feet that turned out to be tumors...and, upon further investigation, turned out to have been spawned by a cancerous tumor in her chest. We spent weeks soaking her feet, because all of us, including the vet, thought the tumors were abcesses. Like most cats, she hated water, but she tolerated it because she seemed to sense that we were trying to help. When it became clear that she had cancer, we thought long and hard, but ended up deciding to amputate the affected toes, since the tumor in her lung wasn't causing her much distress at the time, and the vet thought the amputation might buy her six to eight months of comfortable life. Tragically, it was only two weeks before the cancer returned to her feet with a vengence.

During her final weeks, she would often lie next to me on the sofa and clasp my hand to her chest. Every now and then she would reach up with her paw and pat my cheek. I think she knew she was dying and was trying to tell me it was OK to let go. I've often wondered if we did the right thing, but perhaps that little paw against my cheek really did tell me all I needed to know.

Redwolf

Well, I think when things don't work out as we hoped it is kind of easy to forget that a person didn't know at the time of the decision that things would work out that way. Our vet did talk to us a lot about just focusing on the animal when we made our decisions and I think he would have let us know if he thought we were focusing on our needs instead of the animal. I'm sure yours would have too.