I had to take my cat to the vet today. Some of you may remember the incidents where one of my cats was occasionally urinating on the floor instead of in the tray. Well, this escalated somewhat until the tray wasn’t being used at all, and it was always the floor. M and I were getting a little bit tired of cleaning pee off the floor, particularly when we knew we were keeping the litter tray clean.

We thought he might have a urinary tract infection, which prompted the vet visit. I was dreading it all day, because he absolutely hates travelling in the car. He didn’t used to be too bad - when I brought him and his brother home nearly 4 years ago, I heard virtually nothing from them the whole drive back, which was abount a half an hour trip. But a few years ago he went missing, and when he returned, he had worn his claws down to the quick, and they were bleeding. Obviously he’d been stuck somewhere and was trying desperately to get out. So I took him to the vet to get him checked out and he absolutely freaked. So the poor boy doesn’t handle car trips very well any more.

I brought the cat cage down for him to suss out before we left, hoping that he’d investigate and decide that it wasn’t too bad. He didn’t like the idea of getting in, but I did manage to get him in there without too much hassle. We got in the car and M put the seatbelt around the box. Then he started crying, and I don’t mean the cute little, “I’m hungry, please get me something to eat” squeaking. I’m talking, “What the hell are you doing, you can see I’m scared to death, yet you’re still putting me through this” wailing. It was awful.

Fortunately the vet was only a few minutes’ drive away, and I was talking to him the whole way, trying to make him feel better but it didn’t have any effect. My poor baby was petrified. The way the box was positioned, I couldn’t put the car into 2nd gear (which I obviously didn’t realise until I tried to do it), so I had to go straight from 1st to 3rd the whole time, which wasn’t exactly ideal.

I made it to the vet in one piece, just. Jack had peed and pooed all over the cage, which I knew would happen, although I did have very slight hopes that he might not be so bad on such a short trip. I got him out and went in, and he was still wailing. The receptionist greeted me with, “So, you’ve got Jack with you?” Fortunately she was really nice, and when I said what he’d done to the cage, she said she’d clean it out for me. How embarrassing. So she took him out the back and put him in a bigger cage, and cleaned up my cat’s business. I thought about how awful the trip was and how much I’d been dreading it, and I started to cry. Which is ridiculous, because there wasn’t really a need to. It was just so harrowing, hearing the way he was wailing all the way there - thank goodness it was only a few minutes away because I wouldn’t have been able to handle any more. I managed to pull myself together before anyone saw me, and the receptionist came out with the clean cage, saying that she’d left Jack in the larger cage out the back and would bring him in when the vet was ready.

A few minutes later, the person seeing the vet before me was done, and I heard my boy cry, so I knew he was in the room. I went in and he was sitting on the table, with the vet trying to hold him still. I went and tried to comfort him, and he stopped trying to get away. He even snuggled up to me a bit a couple of times, which made me feel wanted, but he’s a cat, so I didn’t read too much into it. He even started purring eventually, but I’m certain it was out of distress rather than comfort that I was there.

The vet said that she thought that him peeing on the floor was probably more a behavioural thing than an infection, because his bladder was small, which was a good sign because it meant that there weren’t any blockages. She gave him an anti-inflammatory injection anyway, and some antibiotics just in case. Bye bye $81. I’m really hoping that this will make a difference. The vet also said that she’d call next week to see how he’s doing, and if he’s still not using his tray, that I’ll have to get a urine sample and bring it in. Yes, I’ll have to get the urine sample. She said that I could talk to the receptionist about how to do that if the need arises, but I suppose that if he’s still leaving puddles on the floor, it probably won’t be so difficult.

So we were finally out of there, and I put the box in a different way, so I could use the gears on my car in the manner in which they are meant to be used. The problem with this way was that there was no way to secure the box, so it was a bit unstable. The result of this was that it moved around a bit, and poor Jack was more terrified on the way home than he was on the way there. It was a combination of driving as fast as I could in order to get home as soon as possible and get him out of there, and driving slowly so that the cage didn’t fall off the seat and he didn’t get flung around. I did most of the driving with one hand, with my other hand on the cage to steady it. My little baby had his claws dug into the cage, partly trying to keep from falling over when I turned a corner, and partly trying to dig a way out - I feel terrible just thinking about it.

Arriving home was a huge ‘thank fuck for that’ moment, and as soon as I took him out of the car he stopped crying, so I think it’s mainly the car that freaks him out, and being trapped in a cage (although it’s for his own good - and that of my upholstery) in it makes it worse. I took him into the laundry and cleaned him up a bit, and that was that. I picked him up a bit later to give him a cuddle but he thought I was going to put him in the cage again, and wailed a bit. So I figured it might be a good idea to leave him alone for a little while.

I tried to suck up to him later by giving him the top off M’s yoghurt, and I think he fell for it and that all is forgiven now. I can pick him up again and he doesn’t freak out, so that’s a good thing, and he’s sitting next to me as I type this, so hopefully he doesn’t think I’m all bad. Next time I have to take him to the vet (which will hopefully not be for a LOOOONG time yet), I’m getting M to drive and I can have the cage on my lap - taking him to the vet is definitely a 2-person operation.