It’s that time of year, time for the parade of V-E-T visits to get everyone up to date on vaccines and health checks. We know, ugh! Has to be done regardless…so let’s begin the parade with the easy kitties. Hmm, Maxx and…Tessa? Yeah, the gray kitties. Easy-peasy, we’ll be in and out and back home, from cool car to our cool house on this, a scorcher of a day when our area is expected to set a high temp record.
Easy cat Maxx, for all he ‘claims’ to hate everyone at home, was a peach. Poked, prodded, pawed over, he didn’t care.
No big deal – 2013 © Colehaus Cats
“Just listen to my purr,” he….well, purred. Yeah, just between you and us, Maxx is a secret sweetheart.
Tessa, on the other hand…
Our sweet Tessa. Sure, troublesome, our Danger Cat. But most of the time, quiet, curious, loveable.
Not today.
The second she came out of her carrier, sweet Tessa went into a full lip-snarling, teeth-gnashing rage! To say she was NOT HAPPY IN THE LEAST would be an understatement. What happened to our sweetie?
Not a good idea. Just sayin’ – 2013 © Colehaus Cats
Let’s see, her first V-E-T visit just over a year ago when she was little more than a squirming, charming kitten, she behaved like your typical squirming, charming kitten who everyone fell in love with.
Then, there was that middle-of-the-night Emergency V-E-T Hospital visit after she surfed off and over the second-floor railing when she was 7 months old and during which, she acted almost perfectly fine meaning she was active and curious and might have swatted at the V-E-T once, half-heartedly, scaring the young doctor enough to make him stumble backward.
And toot.
Both were cake walks by comparison.
At today’s V-E-T visit, Tessa growled, hissed, swatted and bit. She pulled away, launched herself off the table where she promptly went up to Maxx, already comfortably napping back in his carrier after his checkup, and gave him a smack.
Having raised close to thirty cats over several decades, we never had one that required pulling out the big guns. We can see now those days are over. Even after the tech brought out the heavy gloves, Tessa wasn’t having anything to do with it.
The level of growling and hissing increased. I’m warning you! I haven’t even started!
Oh, did we mention the V-E-T hadn’t even done anything yet? Hadn’t even touched her? No listening to her heart or lungs, no looking at her eyes, ears or gums and definitely no poking where things should not go. Tessa just was not having any thing to do with any of this.
When the V-E-T tried to look at her gums, Tessa went for the bite. Hard. “That’s it.” The V-E-T said. “Everyone’s hands off.”
What Tessa wanted to do to the V-E-T’s fingers – – 2013 © Colehaus Cats
Envision one nine-pound gray and white kitty sitting, glaring, on a table surrounded by four bewildered humans all with their hands up as if being robbed. Robbed of all sense of reason!
Then the tech got Tessa into a good hold. Not forceful, just snug with a touch of “Tessa, you’re still in control but not able to hurt anyone, including yourself.” Through and around all the growling that quickly turned to actual screams, the V-E-T was able to get the exam done. Mom remembers thinking, “We are going to scare everyone out in the waiting room half to death!” And then, here came the yearly vaccines. Yep, vaccines. Plural.
Tessa knew exactly what was coming and wrenched herself free. She literally threw herself off the table, raced over and swatted at Maxx again who was all like, “What’d I do?”
Tessa went all Smacky Paws! – 2013 © Colehaus Cats
Snarling and backed into a corner, she dared the tech to try to put her on the table again.
Well, the tech did exactly that. Back on the table, Tessa had the fight of eighty cats in her, plus two!
Another tech was brought in. And shortly thereafter, that tech had to go get the other gloves, the longer, heavier, thicker ones that seemed, wisely enough, to run from fingertips to jugular vein. The first shot given wasn’t terribly bad (said as if “wasn’t terribly bad” referred to a tickling feeling of having one’s knees skinned, slowly and methodically, with a salted potato peeler). There was low-level screaming but no one’s ears were bleeding afresh. The second shot, OMC!
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Tried to warn you, but no… – 2013 © Colehaus Cats
More fighting! More screaming! And don’t you know that finally, after all that, that was the easiest shot? One poke and instantly, all was fine. Okay, there was that look of shear hatred she flashed at the V-E-T, the two techs and us but once everyone let go of her, she was back to her old self again.
Back at home, in the cool house, sweet Tessa sauntered out of her carrier as if nothing had happened. During lunch, Dad remembered her secret love – cheese, and after a few shared pieces, all is forgiven. But we bet, not forgotten. Believe us when we say next year, we’ll take a different tactic!
