Bad Day at Cat Doc

I noticed right after I posted yesterday – that post was my 500th post!

The bad day started early for the one cat that wasn’t even going.  In order to keep Julius’ stomach empty, I had to pick up all the dry food.  This was quite a hardship for Calpurnia, who loves to nibble on her own personal bowl upstairs.  I reverted to this when Gus had his aggression issues with the Feliway and never went all the way back.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, in the morning when she gets the bowl filled I didn’t do it!  She spent all morning doing rubs and spin dances around the area to remind me about the food. I could only give her some after I had boxed the other two cats. Poor girl.

As usual, it was difficult enough to get the cats into the carriers. I have to grab one first because as soon as the noise of a carrier is heard all the cats go to ground in the hardest to reach spots.  I had to pull Gus from under the bed later.

Gus saves the loudest cries for the final carry from the car to the vet’s door, but he quiets down once he’s inside.  Julie tends to go to the far back of his carrier, which makes it harder to carry.  Unlike the morning drive down, though, the drive back was bad.  The highway was jammed full and I tried to improvise a way back over side streets.  The one I tried hand speed bumps every 100 yards or so.   A little bit of that and Gus got a little sick and spit up on his paw.  Even Julie, normally pretty quiet, was complaining until I found a better road.

Like the drive back, I tried to be efficient in unloading the two and made it harder still.  There was a problem getting the door inside open around the carriers.  Calla was in the door at the start but she retreated pretty soon.

I let Julie out first, and he started moving around off into the living room. I took Gus and washed off his foot in the bathroom and then back into the kitchen to get some food ready for them.  Then I heard Julie start to hiss and pace around the ground floor like a caged panther.  Then he spotted Gus and charged him and gave him a few swats and moved off.  He kept pacing and hissing and sometimes panting, and every time he saw Gus in passing he went for him.   Not viciously or hard, but still.  Then I walked towards him to see what was going on and he went for my legs the same way!  A couple of swats and a chest bump.

Gus and I tried to avoid him and got a few more charges for our trouble.  He let me pick him up without a fuss although he wanted down.  Once I got his attention while he was pacing and he jumped atop the cat tree and let me touch him for a second before he was pacing again.

I got Gus some food, and Julie went upstairs where I heard some hissing. I figured that Calla would make a big noise herself but none came so I figure she had avoided him during his crazy time.  I was worried about his panting so I got a wet cloth and wet down his hair some.  He wouldn’t drink from the fountain while he was so agitated.

It took quite a while but finally he calmed down and ate some and relaxed and got back to normal.  Gus took his chance to head upstairs himself and for a few hours everyone was lying low in their own room.   A while later I was able to give Julie his pain meds normally but I had to go find Gus to give him his normal pill for the evening.

It took a few hours for everything to blow over.   Calla came downstairs to hang out after two hours.  Gus returned himself soon after that, although he gave Julie a wide berth.  It was almost bedtime when Gus walked over to Julie and they touched noses for a minute before sitting a foot or so apart.

I took that to mean that there were no hard feelings.

Related articles

• Happy Cat? (threecatyard.wordpress.com)
• Bad Vet Day (threecatyard.wordpress.com)