Sunday, October 19, 2008

How can I stop my human hauling me off to the vet?


Dear George,

Periodically, my human will ambush me without warning (usually when I am sound asleep enjoying dreams of chasing mousies and birdies) and stuff me unceremoniously into my PTU and cart me off to the dreaded v-e-t! There I am subjected to all sorts of atrocities -- loud, barking dogs in the waiting room, having to sit on a cold metal table in the exam room, having my teeth and ears checked, and the worse one of all...getting a shot in the butt!
What can I do to get my human to show a little common courtesy and ask me first whether I would like to be stuffed into my PTU and carted off to the v-e-t to incur all those atrocities?
And when she doesn't take NO for an answer and carts me off anyways, what, if any, recourse should I take against her?
Sincerely with a sore butt,
Wally

Dear Wally,
You have put your paw on a very sore issue indeed, one of the most outrageous examples of human stupidity even human cruelty. It is the sheer hypocrisy of it, that gets up my gleaming black nose. One moment the human is cooing all over us, then suddenly they are taking us off to what is a torture chamber. How can they do this?
So what can we do about it? The first thing is to brush up your verbal skills in human language. Like the rest of us, you probably stop listening to their endless vocalising. They never stop "talking" so most of us cats simply screen out the noise. However, this is a mistake when it comes to the v-e-t situation. You simply have to keep an ear out for that particular vocalisation.
It's not alway easy. The word comes in the middle of a torrent of other similar sounding vocalisations like "pet" "yet" "vat" "vit'amins and so on. However, if you apply your considerable cat skills to the task you will find that you can hear it. Once heard, the word is an advance warning.
Make yourself scarce immediately. If you are an outdoor cat, this is the moment to saunter through the cat flap and disappear for the nex 24 hours. If you are an indoor cat, it is a little more complex but there are places from which she will find it difficult to extract you - the furthest side of the bed, underneath the cooker, behind the fridge, high up on the top of the wardrobe, inside one of the drawers in a chest of drawers.
If these places don't work, think laterally. The point about the human species is that they are relatively unintelligent. I have found it useful at times simply to hide myself by sitting on a chair that has been drawn up to the table - ie: I am hidden by the table itself. This is a particularly good place if your human has a tablecloth over the table. I have seen my human running up and down stairs, peering under beds, opening cupboards sometimes in the same room, and all the time forgetting to find me there.
Perhaps other cats will contribute their suggestions for good hiding places. All of us need them in order to avoid the visit to the veterinary torture chamber.
George
PS Revenge on your human is easier. Withdraw all attention from her - no purring, no looking at her, no rubbing round her legs. Ignore her for at least 24 hours. Refuse to sleep on the bed (unless it is a particularly cold night). This "silent treatment" is hard for a social species like humans to bear. If there is another person in the household, be particularly affectionate to him.

8 comments:

  1. The last time I was taken to the VET, I thought I had escaped capture, but then I felt Mom grab me by my back paw. Curses!!!

    I recommend the basement, providing your house has one. It has lots of dim corners & stuff to hide behind. If you're lucky, while you're down there you may even find a tasty spidey to hold you over 'til it's safe to come out again.

    Max S.

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  2. You sure dooz haff some gweat suggestions about avoiding the PTU and da Vet! Many fanks! *Redfurd*

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  3. The last time our "Mom & Dad" wanted to take us to the vet, we (me and my sister) worked out quite a good plan!
    See, they have this strange idea that we have to go (me & my sis) together; so each time they tried to "fit" us into that huge thing they call "carrier".....we took turns escaping the thing.
    So, when Mommy put Fluffy in, I sneaked out. Then, when Dad tried to put me in, Fluff run out...and so on...until we exhausted them and they had to cancel the visit.
    And they talk about high IQ and all that stuff and never thought of taking us separately :-) Ha! Ha!
    See, you need a sister or a brother and some silly parents...but the plan might very well work.
    Hugs
    Cayenne

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  4. Let me jump in... If you don't have a brother or sister, as my sister Cayenne suggested, then try our plan B; you have to convince your humans that you have been "mistreated" by the vet.
    Refuse any food when you are back home, don't let them pet you, cry "the baby cry" and do not (under any circumstances)pay any attention to them. See, our Daddy loves us very much (will kill for us - of course, especially for me)and worries each time we have to go to the vet. He worries so much that he doesn't even want to go inside; so it is quite easy for us to convince him that something "monstrous" happened inside, no matter how hard our Mommy is trying to convince him that the vet was quite gentle and nice (she really worries me sometimes; guess...she needs a check up).
    They will start "a discussion" and the last one ended up with "we have to find another vet".
    Here is the best part; if your humans are like ours....they won't easily trust a vet and ....it might take them quite a long time to find one....so you are safe & happy for a while :-)
    Hugs,
    Fluffy

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  5. I just overheard my humans talking and that word VET was mentioned. I must find a hiding place NOW! I can go to the lawn mower build and sleep on the seat of the mower, or hide in the boat or better yet, hide under the bed, after all, there is a nice soft pillow on the floor under there for me and they hardly look for me there. I have to run now and hide.

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  6. I've only just figured out the computer keyboard, kewl. Hiding? The bookshelf, under above behind within..great for avoiding those toothsome kittens.
    Elegant Minnie who is a Cats Protection puss living with Ellen.

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  7. Oh yes... the vet is pretty bad... Of course last month when I was sick, my owner took me to the vet and I felt a whole lot better the next week... Was that the vet's doing? Hmm..nah! But at least they didn't put a thermometer in my rear end!

    Bandit

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  8. Withdrawing all attention from the hairless apes gets my vote. I make it lasting and personal.

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Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org