Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Monday, August 25, 2014: Stressful Times and the Cat Carrier

I was right about our sleeping routine yesterday. Tommy alternated throughout the night between sleeping on the bed and sitting by the window. Each time she decided to grace me with her presence on the bed, she made sure to “announce” her intentions. I’m sure that this was payback for my extended walk Sunday.
Tommy “let” me sleep until after 7:00 and then let me know that it was time to get busy on my duties. I got up and handled food, water, litter box, and garbage, but that wasn’t enough. Mr. Rat made an early appearance which meant it was play time. Because we had missed our normal evening session the previous night, I knew that we were overdue for some playing. I got out the fleece teaser and we played for well over 30 minutes. I was then dismissed to finally make coffee and work at the computer while Tommy curled up by some of her other toys.
As I worked on the computer, Tommy came out to check up on me and make sure that I was doing “appropriate” things. I’m sure that she wondered why I hadn’t printed the daily puzzles and returned to the living room.  She returned to the living room and I knew that my minutes in the study were numbered and I’d better hustle to complete my tasks.
Everything was going well until the fire alarm sounded and we were told to vacate the building. I got out the carrier to transport Tommy down he 11 flights of stairs. I’ve never had trouble getting her into the carrier, but she must have sensed my panic and fought against going into the carrier. Fortunately the carrier has a “top load” feature and although she tried to escape, I got her into the carrier, by holding her down as I zipped it shut.
Once we got outside, she calmed down. I think that she actually enjoyed seeing all the people and being outside. We were outside under the front canopy sheltered form the rain for at least 20 minutes although it seemed like much longer. We were told that we could return to our units via the stairs but not the elevators.
We trudged back up the stairs with everyone else and Tommy let everyone know that she didn’t like all the noise of people climbing up the metal stairs. When we reached the safety of our unit, Tommy got a treat, many compliments, and lots of petting, so she settled down quickly.
I finished up the cleaning and had lunch. I didn’t look forward to putting her back in the carrier to go to get her nails clipped at Petco later.  I had planned on going later in the morning, but with the evacuation and thunderstorm, I delayed it until the afternoon.
After lunch Tommy was very curious as to why the carrier was still out and she kept inspecting it. I thought that this might be a good time to take her to have her nails clipped. I threw a couple turkey treats in the carrier and Tommy quickly went inside to retrieve them. I zipped up the carrier and off we went.
During both the elevator and car rides Tommy was quite vocal about being tricked into getting in the carrier, but was fine once we got to the salon.  When the young cashier asked if Tommy had been there before I reminded him that she had tried to climb up and over his back last time. He, of course, remembered her and I told him that there were turkey treats in her bag if needed. I barely had time to pay for her visit, more treats and a new toy and she was finished.
During the drive home Tommy was pretty quiet or shall I say a bit less vocal. We got home and she got her treats. I then showed her the new toy, a feather teaser and she played with it for a little while. When she tired of the feathers, she strolled over to the fleece teaser to let me know that it was still her favorite and I’d better still use it. We played with it for a while and then Tommy went for a drink, a bite to eat and a nap as did I.
We had a quiet evening and headed for the bedroom for one final round of play before going to bed. At one point Tommy went under the bed, so we played hide-and-seek with the teasers being dragged along the edge of the bed. Tommy seemed to enjoy it. She settled at the window and I was on the bed. I fell asleep, but was awakened a little later by Tommy who had jumped on the bed. I think she was surprised that I was asleep with all the lights and T.V. on and no good night petting. We took care of all of that and we curled up on the bed and went to sleep.

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