Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for May 02, 2012

MEEOWW… feline for MAYDAY!

I just carry my cat into the vets in my arms…..she gets a little concerned about some dogs, but basically she’s too busy making me feel bad by giving me THAT look….“I try to be such a good little kitty….Why are you doing this?”. But I’m tough. I tell her “twenty one pounds ain’t little, babe…” Yeah we have a strange relationship.

MEOW is catspeak for “all your curtain are belong to us”.

I put the carrier on end and open the door and drop her in head first. She puts her little paws out to catch herself to land and tadah she’s now inside the thing. Just have to make sure I’m holding her first before getting the carrier or I can never find her.

For the first time in my life I have a cat that will just walk into the carrier… All I have to do is put it down in the middle of the living room and open it. He waltzes right in and sits down to start exploring it…

I adopted a blind cat. Took her to the cat optometrist (never knew that there was such a profession). His assistant, who looked like a pro wrestler, took what had become a ball of high-speed claws and teeth and pretty much body slammed her gently (use your imagination) onto the table. Picture a cat shaped pancake – a genuine FlatCat. $150.00 later, he told me “Yep, she’s blind.”By the time I got my “free” cat home from the shelter, after that visit, the de-sexing, the cat box, cat shots, cat toys, cat food, cat-this and cat-that, I was out over $400.00. I looked at her and said, “For that cost,you’d better be the world’s most affectionate cat!”R-i-i-i-g-h-t. She’s a cat. Affectionate when she wants to be, which is usually when I’m the warmest spot in the house.Worth every penny.

I’ve finally figured out how to get the cats in their carriers without having to move furniture to dig them out. The carriers are in my bedroom so as soon as I get up and make the bed, I put them on the bed and unzip them (soft sided carriers are much lighter and easier on me). Leave them there until right before the appointment. Scoop up the unsuspecting individual who’s turn it is to visit T.E.D (the evil doctor) and stuff them in before they know they’ve been had. I still get told the whole way there that I’m an evil, bad mommy and they will never forgive me. Once we get home I open a pouch of tuna though and all is forgiven :)

Adrienne, bless you for adopting a special needs cat! Be glad she isn’t on you all the time. My official title in the house is Cat Couch. As soon as I sit down I’ve got at least one of the buggers on my lap.

I have the most trouble putting the tube of flea treatment on the back of her neck.

Singing the “Please don’t take me to the vet” kitty blues all the way.

We have two, the tabby is too slow to get away but the bombay, she’s a tricky one.So my wife has the carrier tipped toward the kitchen door ,entry to the garage. Like above, the bombay is too busy trying to land than stop from being put in.The tabby is just too big and slow so he’s just put in the other carrier.Which by coincidence is going to happen this morning.Hope the cats do read this before getting put into the carriers.

Reposting Arianne’s list of “Janis in a bathtub” strips from a couple days ago, but in a clickable format.July 19, 2001Nov. 8, 2001Mar. 29, 2002Nov. 14, 2003Jan. 14, 2004Oct. 25, 2005Oct. 3, 2008May 15, 2009

We had a gray tomcat, Smokey, who HATED to go to the vet. Our cat door’s lock was broken, so the night before, we place a 75 pound box of books in front of the cat door. He moved it during the night and got out. One strong kitty.

I have to take a bath towel and roll the black cat up like a burrito and dump her in. Then she yowls the whole 20 miles to the vet.

My cat fights from begining to end at bath time, but stillFollows me around the house afterwards like a dog…Go ..figure?

Mee-yao! means “Get off my tail, knucklehead!”

@Rockngolfer and all other kitty people; Unless your cat is a lard tub, just a couple neck-drops of flea treatment per month should do the the trick.It did mine, saved money & aggravation, plus fewer side-effects, and we lived in the land where fleas were invented.Those tubes can be capped and saved for next month’s application. Think about it… how’d YOU like to have a flu shot every month??

LOVE everyone’s cat stories. Thanx for sharing guys. Yes, how is it that cats turn all arms & legs trying to get them into carrier, & then become kitty cork trying to get them back out?

Francis: Did you put the carrier against the wall? If not, I suspect the carrier moved, not the box of books. Still, it does take some strength.

We leave carriers open and accessible, but in slightly secluded locations. They always have an old blanket or poof-bed in them. Cats think of them as special, secure homes and never have an issue of gong in them for trips. Teaching that behavior was a real lifesaver (possibly literally) when we’ve had to evacuate for wildfires.

If we ever pulled the cat carrier out, both of our cats would disappear, but we could usually get them in by either dropping them into the carrier tail first or by tossing a sock full of catnip in first, and it typically work fairly well.

I put my cat in a pillowcase to go to the vet – read it somewhere. She’s usually quiet in there, only howling when the car moves. It’s a lot easier getting her into a pillowcase than a cat carrier. It does look like I’m on my way to the river, though. lol

Whatever happened to Arlo’s invention that was supposed to make them rich? It looked like a huge funnel that you just dropped the cat through into the carrier. I thought it was a great idea, myself! Wish I could find that comic in archives.

@Rockngolfer“There are lots of squirrels, bunnies and common birds that might have fleas just a few feet away, though..”

Forget ‘em.. Once you’ve had a cat that hunts small deer and woodchucks, bunnies are of small concern. Ticks loom, though. Mine died of old age now, but ticks are of concern at any age. Keep with the low dosage of the popularly advertisedflea control products and you’ll have a happy cat that just adooooooores you. btw; my ‘’tribe’ is a ‘cat tribe’ .. no dawgsallowed. My DoorMat states that this house is guarded by a Guard Cat… In this case, a Maine Coon Cat. Or at least it WAS.

Llywus, I that is brilliant…If I ever have to use one, I would do it that way…..Thanks!

jadoo823, yeah, it is a good policy. But what I do is go in without her, and find out what room we’re going to be in. Then I go to the car and just carry her into the room. But not all cats trust their owners like she does. She once had a fish hook through her lower lip. The vet said he’d have to knock her out to work on her. I told him that I would hold her, and that she would let him do what he had to do. He said, “Okayyyy,” sounding doubtful. But, he gave her a local and she just lay there and let him take the hook out of her lip. She didn’t even struggle. I’m sure she understood what was going on. But she never took her eyes off of mine…The vet was an old guy. He said he’d never seen that before. He was really surprised…..I was so proud of her….Yup that’s her on the avitar….Sparkle is her name. A very good kitty….

I have two cats that hate going to the vet. Our female calico meows and meows on the way to the vet. Our male tabby is nice and calm but once we get to the vet. And he is out of the carrier being checked by the vet. He became’s a little terror. She is nice and calm when the vet is handling her. So in turn they became the opposite of each other. We keep the carriers open all the time because get this the both of them love to sleep in the carrier. We keep the carrier just off the stairs because it has a little space for them. So I think it will be easy to get them to the vet this year.

OldbutNotDead,Having a blind cat has it’s advantages. If I ever want to punish her I rearrange the furniture. Or leave the toilet seat up…Right now she’s keeping my neck warm.I have enough trouble taking her to the vet (I’ve saved this page for the tips), but moving was a nightmare. The old house was almost empty, the new owners would be moving in that weekend, and when I tried to get Misty, I understood how Clint Eastwood felt (For those of you old enough to get the reference). She almost ripped my skin off, in little tiny pieces.The third time I went back to the house, I had a heavy leather motorcycle jacket, motorcycle gauntlets, a cardboard box, a roll of duct tape, and a .45 handgun.One way or another, THAT cat was coming out of THAT house THAT night.I finally got her cornered in the shower, and after much loud hissing, spitting, yowling and howling (Misty made some noise as well) I had PsychoKitty crammed into the box and on the way to her new home.We got there, I cut the box open, she calmly stepped out and began calmly exploring our new home.Cats. Gotta love ’em.

We used ot have a cat tree with peek-a-boo holes, to the inside one on top and one on the front, so we’d open the carrier and put it in front of the tree then reach from the top with her kitty towel (it’s just for her and goes in the carrier as a bed) and she’d run right in the carrier becuase it was better than the alternative, getting wrapped up in a towel!

Which is what we had to do to get her her medicine when she got worms from the fleas that were in our first apartment. shudder I am so glad fleas can’t live here (high desert) No trees or grass to speak of mean no ticks either.

My cats actually like to get into their carriers – I put an old towel and some dried catnip in the bottom, and they crawl right in.