Wednesday, March 26, 2008

One of those almost-decapitated-the-cat kind of days...

No, not on purpose. And just a disclaimer before I begin: No cats were killed during the making of this blog. Bruised a little, yes. Nearly strangled, yes. But not killed. Here we go...

Did you ever have one of those days where even the simplest task is ridiculously complicated? If so, welcome to my life. Today's task: take two of the cats in for their shots. It started out fairly simple. We usually start in January with the dog, and one pet per month gets shot up by the vet until we're done. Sometime in November. Anyway, due to a horrid new respiratory virus that is wiping out cats throughout the Midwest, everyone has to have a two shot series this go-round. In brainstorming the best way to go about getting this done, I decided to take the cats in two at a time this year. This presents a few small problems. The biggest of the small problems is that I have a tiny little clown car. Two cat carriers won't fit in it without removing a toddler car seat, and if you've ever had to remove a car seat, you'll know that you'd go to a great deal of trouble to avoid it. Brilliant woman that I am, I came up with a plan to put two cats in one carrier. This involved some experimenting with who will tolerate whom within the confines of a carrier. Miss Mouse and Jack get along very well, so I decided to start with them. Since we grow 'em big in these here parts, I had to use the biggest cat carrier. I haven't used it a long time. This is where it gets interesting.

I stuffed both cats in the carrier and began the short walk to the car. Then I realized that I'd forgotten to lock the front door, so I set the carrier down to rectify the situation. Then I fiddled around with the front seat for a while, so I could cram the carrier into the car. At some point, I looked back and realized that something was horribly wrong. The back clip on the carrier had broken, so as I was walking to the car, there was a gap between the top and bottom halves of the carrier due to the weight of the two cats within. Miss Mouse had made a break for it. Sometime after she got her head out, but before she got the rest of her body out, I set the darned thing down and the top clamped down on her neck, held firmly by all the other clips still holding it together. There she was, blue tongue protruding from her mouth, thrashing horribly. A lot of scrambling and a few broken nails later (mine, not hers, she's declawed), I managed to free her. She seems to have recovered nicely. Since we were on our way to the vet anyway, I had him check her out for side effects of strangulation. She has a clean bill of health, and is traumatized for life. As am I.

4 comments:

Moi said...

Yikes. I'm not sure what's worse, risking the virus or the dangers of the carrier.
Are they all outdoor cats? Or are indoor cats at risk, too? (That is, from the virus, not you or random acts of weirdness.)

I forsee the same thing happening with our carrier, too. Putting two 20lbs cats in a tiny and flimsy plastic carrier is just asking for something bad to happen.

Lista said...

Agreed on the large cats/flimsy carrier. The virus is so contagious that it's best to have the vacc. Springfield had to put down all 187 cats in their humane society shelter in one week because of it. All mine are indoors, but Jack likes to escape occasionally, and we foster all the time, so I didn't want to risk exposure. The virus seems to have a 100% mortality rate. Even though you don't live in the Midwest, it's a good idea to check with your vet about this one. Although some of the stuff we have here, you don't get that far north because of the cold, so it might not be an issue for your two darling psycho kitties.

Christina said...

Poor kitty! Good thing you were on your way to the vet! What happened to you vacinating your own beasts--err--cats? Didn't you used to shoot them up yourself? Does PetsMart still do the low cost vaccinations once a month? Cause I know that's gotta get pricy will all fifty of your feline family.

Lista said...

My vet actually gives me a better deal than Petsmart, when it's all said and done. I guess it's kind of like buying in bulk. I don't give them their shots anymore because none of the rescue groups that I work with will let you foster unless a vet does the shots. Sounds silly, I know, but a lot of those shots have to be kept at a very specific temp to be good, and most of the stores that sell them aren't that careful about storage and such.