Wednesday was the Annual Round-up. At least, that’s what our dad calls it. Mom was going to take photos to post here, but we were all totally uncooperative, and some of us were downright rude and mean. She has, however, included photos from Thursday showing what most of us did after our traumatic and exhausting experience.
“So what’s the Round-up,” you ask? That’s when the vet, Dr. Neel, comes to the house to give us our annual check-ups and shots. We don’t like to get shots, but having them at home is better than being caged and carted across town to the place with lots of sniffy and barky dogs.
Calista Josette was lucky as the odd cat out. She’s not even a year old yet so doesn’t need any more shots right now. Even so, she was sequestered in the kitchen with the rest of us as we awaited our fate. She had no idea what was about to happen. She just didn’t want to be left out if something good was about to take place.
Things went well (for the vet and her technician, Tamika) with the first couple of us, Mauricio and Lily Olivia. But when Dad went to grab another cat, we were no where to be found. One of us—we are not ratting out that housemate—had managed to open the door to the foyer. We all headed for the hills with the hope that we wouldn’t be found.
So while Dr. Neel and Tamika waited in the kitchen, we played Hide and Seek with our humans. Eventually most of us were caught and taken to our death torture session. Two kitties, however, remained on the lam.
If you are a long-time reader of this blog, and few are, you have probably guessed the identity of the two. They’re the two who like to get “nekked.” One of them is the kitty who abhors strangers in the house. If you haven’t guessed…Fiona and Astrid! They both hid under the bed and played Keep Away with Mom and Dad. Mom finally caught Fiona. For her effort, she got her hand bit, clawed and bruised. (By Thursday morning her hand had swelled noticeably. It’s better now.) As Fiona can gyrate and wiggle and turn herself topsy-turvy, Mom can never hold on to her and so quickly handed her off to Dad who hauled her back downstairs.
Then it was time to catch Astrid. Way easier said than done. She’s as fast as Danica Patrick (even without a car) and as slippery as a pickpocket in a crowd. In an attempt to get her to show herself, Mom got the wand toy with the streamers. Astrid grabbed it with her paws but would let go when Mom tried to drag her from under the bed. This is not to say she didn’t come out. She did! She was under the bed, on the bed, running in circles around the bed and pressing herself against the wall at the head of the bed.
Disgusted, Mom finally announced that she was giving up and would pack up Astrid and take her to the veterinary office. She opened the bedroom door and watched Astrid shoot out from under the bed, fly down the hall passed Dr. Neel and Tamika (who had come upstairs to assist in catching her) and hurtle down the stairs. By the time she got downstairs all four humans were on her tail. The pocket doors were open to the living room and she sprinted in. Dr. Neel and Mom followed and closed the doors. She was trapped. They just had to find where she was hiding.
Mom checked under the couch, and there she was. And Mom could reach her. She just couldn’t get her out from under it. We suspect the only reason Mom could get her is that Astrid was stuck and couldn’t get out by herself. While Mom had a tight grip on the escape artist, Dr. Neel lifted the end of the sofa. Caught at last. It took a little time to calm her down, but once she had her shots, she just lay on the counter and stared at everybody.
Besides being checked over thoroughly and given shots, we all got weighed. Mauricio was still the heaviest, weighing in at 14.2 pounds. Since he’s the only boy, that’s appropriate. Giulietta ranked second at a hefty 13.7 pounds. The light-weight was Astrid at 7.2 pounds. Who would have thought she’d be the most trouble? The baby, Calista Josette, was not the lightest or even the second lightest. She weighed in at 9.2 pounds.
That was the wildest Round-up ever. After the fiasco, Mom’s a little worried that Dr. Neel won’t come back next year. If that meant we didn’t have to see her at all, we would find that to be quite satisfactory. Unfortunately, it only means that we’d all have to be crated and carted.
The following morning Astrid and Lisbeth still were freaked out. They were skulking around the house and looking nervously at the front door. Even with many reassurances, Astrid was unable to put the experience out of her mind.
The humans just hope we’ll forgive them for their unacceptable behavior. Maybe some treats and catnip will help. Hint! Hint!
Purrs and hugs, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Josette
He comes to your house? Nice!
Last time I had to ask for that, they refused to do so. 🙁
Our doctor comes to the house too–and has for the past 19 years! We have had a few kitties through the years who were were timid and hid, but we Five are far too curious to run off. We have fun making faces at each other during exams, and each year Mimi occupies the scale and mama has to take her off while her children are being weighed. We are really so desperate for attention that we will stoop to even playing with the enemy.
Wow! Conga-rats all you kitty kids for making your Humans WORK to catch you and torture you. You know, I’d fit right in over there for sure 😉 I am a CHAMPION hider and evader, and as strong as an ox and slippery as an eel when it comes to twisting away from people who intend to Do Me Harm! Bravo!!!
What a pallaver !!! I should imagine everyone involved will need some kind of counselling ! mol
We knew exactly what round up day is cause we have a round up day in August. And, although this is our first visit here, we thought Astrid was a tortie. BTW, we’ve had to google you because the link on your comments is to Google +. We closed our account for Google+ because of some comment issues we didn’t like and then they didn’t like the name on the account, even though it was Oui Oui’s! Anyway, its nice to see everyone.
Yikes! Such an ordeal… we need to find a mobile vet for our kitties and thank you for the reminder! Purrs from the Zee/Zoey gang
Woah, you guys are really good at the dash thing, I’m taking some notes!! I HATE going to the vet SO much!!
That does sound like a lot of work to round everyone up. All of us here would do the very same thing. It is almost easier just to put them in a carrier while they are not freaked out and take them to the vets.I doubt that I could catch all these guys.
But at least you got them all and they all got their shots. That is the good news.Take care and have a great day.
As events go, this round-up business is pretty intensive. It’s so nice that it can be done in your own home!
Glad to know that all the kitties are healthy! and my friend Lisbeth a bit freaked out still the next day huh? poor thing, big hug to all and to you a kiss for being such a wonderful mom!
Feel free to post a picture of Lisbeth on my page if you want!
Hugs Miss Blue and happy weekend!
Lizbeth
Wow, you kittehz and humans both need a day of rest after that wild round-up! The vets don’t make housecalls around here, yet. Mommy can’t wait for the day they do!
Haha! That was quite the round-up!! We wish we had a vet that came to our house instead of having to go there. Though we still wouldn’t want to cooperate.
I enjoyed reading about your “round up” experience. LOL. Your cat, Astrid, looks just like my Sophie. All your cats are pretty. 🙂
Wow, lovely Astrid sounds like our kind of girl!!hehe…We are glad the dreaded vet visit is over for you guys and hope everyone enjoys a happy weekend, sweet friends…xoxo…Calle, Halle, Sukki, Mommy Cat, Daddy Cat
PS…Do you guys post your link everyday at the CB (Cat Blogosphere)?…It’s a great way to make friends!
Our round-up Vet went out of business and now we must travel, I’m not sure which is worse! Have a calm weekend gang!
I guess you know where they got the expression ‘herding cats’ from, huh? Yikes what fun you had!
Oh! That sounds like my kind of fun! Me thinks that Astrid and Fiona would makes great Cats From Hell!
Kisses
Nellie
MOL. The two that were well-behaved (Mauricio and Lily Olivia) would make much better candidates! There is actually a post entitled, “Good Kitty Fiona.” We think she probably still qualifies. She’s just really afraid of strangers. Purrs, LO, M, MM, G, F, A, L and CJ
OMC!! I am an only cat and I have to go to my cat vet, but at least there are never any dogs. And I can run and hide when it’s time for my claws to be whacked…except they tricked me last night and I didn’t have time to run…so now I have freshly whacked claws…sigh. Paw pats, Savannah