 |
| My Sweet, Innocent Cat China Napping on the Kitchen Table. |
Sucking up cat pee with a syringe off my guest bathroom floor at 5 a.m. isn’t exactly how I planned to begin my day but that’s where this story begins. My little gray tabby, a new addition to my home, sat outside the bathroom watching me cleaning up the mess. Her tail flip-flopped from side to side while wearing a Cheshire grin. If she had fingers I’m pretty sure she’d be flipping me the bird with both paws.
I adopted my princess named China from the Cat Depot in Sarasota last month and part of the routine in adopting is introducing her to my veterinarian. The vet’s routine is to order up as many tests as possible which included a urine analysis, which was preceded earlier in the week with a feline leukemia virus vaccine, blood draw and an invasive temperature reading which took the vet tech at least six times.
Ever since that visit only a few short days ago, she’s seemed a little angry. I suppose I would be too if someone had to shove a thermometer in me six times.
My task today was to provide the vet with urine and stool samples. It’s not like I can ask my cat to pee in a cup so the tech provided me with a jar of what looked like sand, a syringe and a plastic vile with a mini spork attached to the screw-top lid.
I was instructed to place the sand in a pile – rather than spreading it out – in the center of a clean litter box. (Yeah, that’s an oxymoron.) This litter box was to be placed in a bathroom with the rug removed. I figured I’d place her in there overnight with her food and water and would wake up to a pool of urine to easily extract and stool sample to drop off at the vet’s office on my way to work.
Around 11 o’clock last night I said good night to this little sweet kitty and shut the door. My other cat, Sunny, opted to sit in the linen closest opposite the closed bathroom door rather than nesting in his usual evening spot. Some boys can be so loyal.
Sometime during the night something loud woke me up but didn’t startle me enough to get out of bed to investigate. Around 4:30 this morning Sunny nudged me to wake up and per his usual routine, he stood on his hind legs in order to reach the painting above me and knock it against the wall to signal the beginning of his day. Despite showing him the time and telling him it was too early for breakfast, he relentlessly nudged me with his nose between knocking the painting.
Enough!
Giving in, I rolled out of bed into the kitchen, turned on the light and was startled to what I saw sitting in front of me. China! Her look said, "nahnah nahnah nahnah.” Well, not really but I like to keep this blog at least PG.
I went into the bathroom where the door was opened just large enough to let a small cat out. I gasped at what waited for me. Yup. There sure was a pool of urine waiting for me. It just happened to be all over the floor. Along with all the sand which was no longer in a nice little pile but was spread all over the floor. The litter box was flipped over.
UGH!
I had a dog lock himself in a bathroom but have never had a pet get out of a bathroom.
Looking around and trying to figure out how the heck she was able to open the door I saw a little trail of sand leading to the toilet seat to around the sink’s edge and to the door knob which is at the sink's level. Looking closely I could see scratches on the knob.
Without the aid of opposable thumbs, somehow she managed to turn the knob just enough to get out. Should I change her name to Houdini? Maybe Sunny was on the other side pushing. He's become smitten with her although she could care less about him.
I suppose once she made the break she went back and intentionally flipped the litter box in an act of defiance.
My sweet little angel.
Oh, the life of a cat mom.
Comments