Louie and the Vet

Louie is truly a fraidy cat..  He hides when anyone comes to the door.  He hides for days when we have company only coming out when everyone is asleep.  He's pretty much a homebody with ventures on our deck to watch the birds.

He hates the car which always means a trip to the vet. He has some very unpleasant memories.  Skip the next picture if you have a tender stomach.

 When we got Louie, he had a leg that was just a stump.  It would catch on the floor and leave blood everywhere.  We consulted with our vet and he said the best thing to do was remove that leg at the him.  Louie did great after surgery and was his old self after a couple of days.

Yesterday was the day for Louie to go to the vet for shots and a checkup.  He is hard to trick and I had to put his collar (which he will never wear) and lease in the car the day before as to not freak him out.

When time came to go, he knew something was up so the only way I could get him to come to me was to sing Barry Manilow's "I Write The Songs."  He comes every time.  I grabbed him and out to the car we went.  He immediately started that angry meow which is a few keys below his normal meow.

I climbed in and off we went.  He was not happy and we got to the vet in one piece.  It was late in the day and I was shocked to find two other yellow tabby kitties waiting.  Usually, we are the only ones.  Louie sat on my lap with his head buried into my arm, ears back.  One of the other kitties was with a mom and two boys.  He was twice the size of Louie and sat very patiently for his turn.  The other tabby was being dropped off and he went back first.

I've never heard such cat screaming in all my life.  Louie just buried his head further in my arm.  The other cat didn't move.  The owner came out with blood dripping from each arm saying his cat had never done that before.  The staff patched him up with bandaids as much as they could and the second kitty went back.

Then a new older vet I had never seen before came for Louie.  We went into the exam room and that's where things got really strange.  As the doctor examined Louie, Louie did not move at all.  It was like he was in shock.  The doctor was really surprised to and decided to clean plaque from his back teeth.  He had needed this done for some time but it would require anesthesia and a big bill. 

As he was working on Louie and the plaque was flying, he stopped and called all the staff in to see what was going on.  They had NEVER seen a cat act like that.  It was like he was unconscious.  He just laid there limp as they worked on him.

He was give two shots to which I flinched but he didn't move a muscle.  Then the vet picked him up and looked at him and didn't want to let him go.  He said that in all his years he had never seen anything like it.  I had told him that Louie usually tries to get away and off the table but he had never acted like that before.

He handed Louie back to me and we went out to the waiting room to pay.  I put Louie down to get out my checkbook and he laid flat out there in the middle of the waiting room.  All of the sudden the family came out with their cat in a bag and the staff saying they were so sorry.  They all had tears in their eyes.  They almost stepped on Louie and he didn't budge an inch.  I felt so badly for them.

I paid my bill, thankly that Louie was fine and returned home.  Louie is still avoiding me and holding a grudge.  We will see how long that lasts and for what happened to him at the vet, I'm still clueless.