When I moved into the Kansas farmhouse, it came with a barn cat. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a dog person, and I don’t particularly enjoy cats. The last time I had a pet cat was when I lived with my folks a decade ago, so it’s not like I am well versed on cat care, including cat transportation. This is a story of a crazy dog lady trying to take a cat to the vet.
The cat, named Yellow Eyes (she came with the name), had lived outside for several years, but used to live inside the house. When I moved in, that cat must have seen the “sucker” stamped on my forehead. I had a series of cat people visit me the first couple of months I lived there, and soon enough, I had an inside cat. To put it delicately, the cat *visibly* had worms, so off to the vet we went!
My cat carrier was full of duck poo (and had actually never been used to transport a cat), so I opted for a file box, like how I transport my chickens. A cat surely can’t be harder than a chicken, right?
Man, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I was running late that morning so I put her in a file box and stuck her in the cargo area of my SUV. This is the same cat who sees the baby-gate as an insurmountable obstacle, so I figured I’d be fine.
Yeah…she wasn’t a big fan of this.
Two seconds into my drive (while I was still on my very long driveway), the cat climbed down my head and was sitting in my lap. Ok, fine. It’s a 15 minute drive. I can drive with a cat on my lap. Then this happened…
She figured out how to open the window and made a beeline to the open window. I had to turn the child locks on for the remainder of the drive, most of which she spent perched on top of my head.
We made it to the vet, where she calmly sat on my lap with a face of pure innocence.
Lesson learned, the box needs to be taped shut to contain the cat! The vet graciously helped me tape the cat into the box, and off we went towards home. I thought I had finally mastered this “cat-ownership” thing. That is, until I stopped for gas and came back to the cat sitting loose in the back seat. *Le Sigh*.
