The Cat Made Me Do Lotsa Laundry

I'm pretty sure The Cat can read the calendar on the fridge.  I write all our appointments on that calendar, and yesterday morning had me wondering if she did see "11a Vet" written in the Monday square.  At 10:15, after I'd just finished drying my hair, I walked into the bedroom and smelled something awful.


The bed, which I'd made that morning, was all rumpled up, but I didn't really see anything obvious.  Once I straightened out the blanket completely, I saw the huge puddle.


  WHIZ!  She took a giant whiz on my bed!


Highly unusual.  Also, super awesome because it soaked all the way down through the mattress pad into the fluffy pillow-top thing I had under the mattress pad.  Ugh.  It was the only time I found myself wishing I'd found a giant poo instead.


So I pulled everything all the way off the bed and threw it into the bathroom, rounded up the kitty, and off we went to the vet.  One of us (not me) was meowing all the way.


She did her usual resistance shtick, and the doctor wound up examining her as she crouched in the cat carrier.  Lots of hissing but she was too confined to take a swipe at him.


The cause for her deliberate "miss" of the litterbox might be an infection, because (as I learned) the steroids tend to lower her immunity.  They of course tried to take a urine sample, which was unsuccessful because, well, gee, I think a giant whiz an hour before might mean there's nothing left.  I warned them!  Oh, but the joke was on me because they wanted me to attempt an at-home collection.  Um, have you met my cat?  Do you think locking her up for 30 minutes in a room with a bowl of water and a litter pan with non-absorbent litter will produce a sample?  


More likely to produce mass destruction, I say.


Adding to The Cat's vet visit experience, a gentleman who brought in a very tiny and very sick chihuahua spoke Spanish to The Cat.  (He said, "Que pasa, gatita?" which translates to, "What's up, little kitty?")  Normally, she is intrigued when people speak other languages to her.  My late friend J used to speak a little Japanese to her, and one time she stared quizzically at a friend who spoke German to her as she hid behind the sofa.  Yesterday, however, she was not having a good day, and she hissed at this poor guy.  He said he still loved cats, anyway, and told me about his cat.


When I got home, I let The Cat out of her carrier and did a complete cleaning of her litterbox in case that was an issue for her.  Then I hauled all the laundry over to my parents'.  I made the most of the washer wait time by picking up cat food and a $4 litterbox for my, uh, "collection" plan.  I didn't get home until after 7 because Oldest Nephew was visiting (Mom took him shopping for school clothes) and I was invited to stay for dinner, where I made myself useful by helping unload the dishwasher and mixing up G&Ts for the adults.


Today, I tried swapping out The Cat's litterbox for the $4 decoy plus fake-litter (throwing trash bags across the bed for insurance), but for the most part, she has been sleeping through the day.  She did get a new steroid shot yesterday, so I think that has knocked her for a bit of a loop.


I'm a little worried she'll be anxious that I'm gone a lot of the day tomorrow and Thursday for faculty meetings, but, as I tell her, the job buys the cat food.  She might still be sleepy tomorrow, anyway.


And I'll just have to try the Folgers (litterbox) switch again tomorrow.


  


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Comments

ccr in MA said…
Oh, jeez! Good luck.
That sounds like absolutely no fun whatsoever. My male cat recently started pooping just outside the litter box (literally less than six inches from it) and I am not amused. Cats are supposed to be so good with bathroom habits!
Kate P said…
CCR--Thanks. So far she's not taking the bait. She does seem a little perkier today, though.

S.D.--Definitely not my idea of a good time!
My parents have one cat who will go #1 in the box but #2 outside of it. Granted, we call him a "special education" case (child of strays, abandoned by the mom cat outdoors), but we think it might be his long hair. He's very fluffy. I hear a lot of talk about how clumping litter causes problems for long-haired cats. Dunno.
The Cat's problem started out as expression of displeasure with confinement, but then later it was to tell me she was sick.
Rob said…
I prefer number 2 accidents to number 1's any day but particularly the cat versions. Hope she's feeling better.

Steroids always made my dogs urinate more. They've had that effect on me, too. My cats have never had that reaction to steroids and they've all been injected with them at one time or another.
Sara said…
I have never had any luck with that litter. Hopefully you do. The most luck we've had was stalking a cat, waiting for it to go to Litter Land (with so many cats it's basically a theme park), and then sneaking a collection pan under the posterior. After that, an eye dropper moves everything to a test tube and voila, sample taken.

I also took a sample from Peanut once. It involved a coffee mug and my hand getting drenched.

Hope everything goes well and turns up fine!
Kate P said…
Rob--thank you for qualifying that with "cat ones." I was worried there for a second. :) The Cat's accident actually was before she got her new shot, so. . . seems to be an isolated incident.

Sara--O.K., I almost wet myself laughing at "Litter Land." Jimi Hendrix might like that title. And I do NOT want to know any more details about getting a sample from a HORSE! My gosh!!!

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