Hi everyone.
Here's an update....
Yesterday was
Tache's day of reckoning: a return visit to the vet to get neutered.
In the past 3 weeks, Tache has gradually been getting use to spending more time indoors (as opposed to not previously being allowed inside at all). He really didn't mind it on rainy days and cold nights and he'd always have the choice. I fed him indoors more and more. He learned the do's and don't's (like getting up on the counter, the bureau, the bed and going in the basement) of indoor living. He likes getting up on the couch (especially when I'm there watching TV), crawling in between the shower curtain and lining and playing with the mat in the tub. He'll frequently curl up on kitchen chairs or on throw mats and even in one of my closets. The (borrowed) littre box, which I had placed in his outdoor 'domaine' (the garage) was only just brought inside yesterday, just before our departure to the vet.
The trip out there was uneventful. Mimma (my friend and tenant) had offered to drive us to the vet. I had to place Tache in the crate and he went in without objection. It was a dreary day ... raining and gray.
I was told I could pick him up after 4 pm. The trip out there was dreadful. It's only about a kilometre away but the rain hadn't let up so I took the bus out there and had to wait about 30 minutes for the connecting bus (only a 5 minute walking distance from my destination) and arriving to a line up of about half a dozen 'customers' at the animal hospital - another 20 minutes of waiting in line. (Of course, when they finally got to me, there wasn't a line-up anymore.) Two buses of late-afternoon-crowded-bus traffic later, just as we get near home, Tache tries to crash out of the cage. I'm holding the crate like a box with both hands, my right arm extended across the door of the cage, so no escape was possible, and we got home without any last minute hi-jinks.
The whole 'pick-up' trip lasted 90 minutes.
Now Tache is mad at me and wants out of the house - something he's not allowd to do for 3 days, while he heals up. In the past 12 hours he's had needy moments - both for food and for cuddling, playful moments, guilty moments (probably been on the bed
) and he's (surprisingly) been back in the cage on his own - to lie down while I was typing this post. He's been rearanging the sand in the litter box. And he's been hungry.
Thing are getting back to normal, I guess.