austin_tycho | Cat-torturing day part deux

As promised, Bowie and Maya went to the vet today.

It did not start well. I thought we could slip Maya into the cat carrier before she knew what hit her, but someone fumbled and it turned into a chase the cat around the house and shove her kicking and screaming into the carrier. She never makes a sound usually, but it was all "waa! waa! waa!" the entire time. If I tried to talk to her she meowed louder, which makes me wonder if she's saying "Help!" and making sure I know where she is so I can find her and rescue her.

I hate cat-torturing day.

Well, she's fine, her teeth are perfect, her weight is perfect, there are no complaints. When the vet asked if I had any concerns, I mentioned her fearfulness. She said my options (if I wanted to try to do something about it) were: Rescue Remedy, Chinese herbal pills (the vet is Chinese and she does medicine for critters), and Western anti-anxiety medication, probably in that order of preference. She also said we could call a cat therapist, who would come over, look at the house and watch how Maya interacts, and make suggestions. I'm actually kind of interested in that, if only because I have been trained as a people therapist, and would be very curious to see how a cat therapist works. I don't know how expensive it is though.

Luckily, since there was no shaving or kitty roofies, the cost of this visit was about 1/4 the cost of the last one. Bowie does not like getting fecal samples taken, by the way. He's usually pretty cheerful about anything, even getting shots. I remember the one time he had to get shaved, the techs said he purred the whole time. But when they went for the sample, he cried like "Hey, this is so uncool!" But his bill of health was almost perfect- he has a little gum disease, and she again suggested tooth brushing, but I'm just pretty sure that's not going to fly at all. I suppose I could give it a try.

I hate cat-torturing day.

At least it only comes once a year.