Yesterday I went to the vet with our little Fey-Fey. A card had arrived via mail telling me her yearly shots needed updating. Normally, I do all cats at the same time, but Fey had come to us last October and needed her vaccinations as soon as possible in order to be able to join the colony.

I also decided to not vaccinate them all at the same time this year, for practical reasons. Though it gets you a discount at the vets, transporting six cats all at once is... challenging. Now, I do plan to take the five up there at the same time in the New Year, when their card will arrive. However, Fey Fey is already easily stressed, and taking them all at once as well as Fey would be even more stressfull for her.

So yesterday, I got out the basket, placed it in the bathroom, called my boyfriend to help me and got to work. My boyfriend was anything but thrilled. Last time we had to catch her was to get her spayed, and he had the scratches to prove it hadn't been easy. Then again...he didn't LISTEN to me while we were hunting her down, thinking his methods were better :P

So this time, he followed my instructions to the T. And wouldn't you know it...it was a walk in the park.

First, we closed the door that led to the front rooms. Then we opened the bathroom door, as that was where I wanted her. I told my boyfriend to stay at one end of the room to add 'pressure' (so she doesn't go to that part of the room, since she's scared of him), and told him to keep his hands to himself. I myself, lightly tapped her tail, and pulled my hand out of the way. It worked. She ran away from me, and from him, into the other room. Now we were in the second bedroom. The bathroom was right there. Again, I told my boyfriend to stay at the opposite wall. And I pushed her towards him and got in front of the nightstand and the closet (she likes to hide under them). She ran away from me, saw him and stopped under a chair. He was like: "What do I do now??" I told him to move the chair and keep his hands well away from her, as he wanted to go poke her. He moved the chair about, she panicked and ran straight into the bathroom. I told him to close the door after me, as I was able to handle her from there. He looked at me like:" Are you mad? That cat feels trapped!" I knew though that Fey Fey yields when she has no way out. She mrooows a couple of time really loud, and that's it.

I walked towards her, let her sniff my hand, while she mrooowed. I petted her softly while talking quietly to her, and then lifted her in to the basket. She went in without protest. Then I left the house and the journey from hell started. I took the tram and it was so incredibly crowded that it must've been very stressful for her. The way back was no better, for that matter

At the vet, she has "AGGRESSIVE!!" typed all over her file, so understandibly, the vet was more than happy to keep her in the basket and examine her ever so gently. I told her that as long as she was 'trapped', she wasn't a threat. She looked relieved and slightly more relaxed, she went back to work. Normally, they also weigh them, but after the shots and the routine examination she told me, if you wanna weigh her, its at your own peril. I grinned and took Fey out. I knew from last time, when she had to be weighed for her operation, that she was rather meek as long as she could sit on my arm, the only familiar thing to her in the room. And so I weighed her myself: 3.8kg!! When I took her really not that long ago for her spaying she was only 2.6kg! In fact, the docter had commented back then that she was light as a feather for her age. And now...wow. I'll have to keep an eye on her :) Then again, she is like Arwen and has grown like mad. She doesn't look fat, but she is rather big so it stands to reason she is quite heavy :)

Anyways, the vet looked at me en went:" I'm going to remove this remark "AGGRESSIVE" from her file, she isn't that difficult at all anymore. I was like:" As long as you do not pressure her physically, she is quite calm *grin* I'm pretty sure she did note that part down in the file though, as I had told her that after the spaying, one of the other vets had returned her to me, wearing catproof gloves *smiles*

Once home, Faith didn't even wait for me to open the basket completely and jumped through the tiniest opening to get away from it all.

And today, the poor thing is very much stressed and dismayed by the cleaning lady making all that noise with the vaccuum cleaner. Our Faith isn't exactly having the best week here *grin*