RUSH: I’ll tell you, I look battle-scarred here today. I had the most unpleasant experience at home today. You know, I have my little cat, my little Abyssinian named Allie. I got Allie a little while, about six months after my previous beloved cat passed away, Punkin.
But I made a mistake with this cat when she was a kitten because the place I live has many danger points for a kitten like second story balconies to jump or fall off of, nooks and crannies to get lost in. For the first, I don’t know, nine months or year the only place the cat got to go was my library where I could keep an eye on her. And it’s a big enough room as it is, and it has an upstairs and a balcony, had to close that off. I closed off the staircase so that nobody could get up there, including the cat.
Well, today she had to go to the vet, the annual checkup and to get the claws clipped. I did not remove the claws this time like we did with the previous cat because I thought that was a little bit too much, plus there are dogs running around so the cat needs some defense mechanisms. They’re giant dogs. They’re sheepdogs. So it was time today, and yesterday we could not get her into the travel cage. She just ran away from the staff attempting to — she would hide in places they couldn’t get her.
So I get this note yesterday, “Look, we’ve tried for two hours, but we’re gonna need your help tomorrow,” meaning today.
I said, “Aw, no. You mean I’m the one that has to catch her and end up being hated?”
I said, “This cat’s either traumatized or mad, or maybe both, at me!” So we get her in that cage. She jumped out, I mean, lickety-split. We found her after another 10 minutes, get her back in the cage, and the guy had forgotten to zip up the end and she darted out the edge of it. It took three times, three traumatized cat experiences. And, I don’t know, it’s not cruelty, because we had to take the cat to the vet to make sure she gets her annual shots, checkup and all this.
But I had Band-Aids and styptic pencils all over my hands for 20 minutes after this. I’ve never seen the cat so mad and I’m just convinced it was that first year. (interruption) Well, it’s getting worse. I mean, this is the first time this happened. Last year when we put her in the cage, I mean, she objected, but there weren’t any claws and fangs and hisses. If I would have thought about it, I would have put on a hazmat suit or some such thing.
Anyway, got her to the vet, got the claws trimmed, got the shots, she’s back home now. But man, oh, man, I’ve never seen such a traumatized pet. And this cat is treated with the greatest affection and nobody is ever mean. I’m convinced that I made the cat paranoid in that first year.
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