What's Gray and White and Blurry All Over?

That blurry streak would be Bobcat slinking into the 6-inch hole in the dropped ceiling at the vet's office yesterday where she prowled around for the next 6 hours.

The story goes like this. This morning started with Caroline telling me what a tough time I was going to have getting Bobcat into her crate (pictured above). Caroline knew this because she had been "practicing" with the cat to perfect the technique of entering the crate for the trip to the vet. By the time we were really ready to go, I had to bend Bobcat into a "U" shape and put her in spine first.

We arrived at the vet around 9:30 am to get the overdue rabies shot but we ended up having quite a wait. As we waited, several bouncy puppies sniffed and peered at Bobcat in her crate. She seemed to take it all in stride and appeared fairly calm when we finally entered the exam room. She slowly came out of her crate and proceeded to sniff and explore around the exam room as we waited some more. Apparently she is an internalizer and must have been more anxiety-ridden than I realized at the time.

After about 10 minutes of waiting in the exam room, Bobcat saw that the cabinets over the counter had a space above them. She made the leap to the top of cabinet as I grabbed for her back legs. I lost my grip and she took that opportunity to slink into the 6-inch hole where the computer cords go up into the ceiling. I could hear the pitter-patter of little claws as she roamed around on the dropped ceiling tiles.

It was a bit embarrassing to poke my head out of the exam room and say that I had lost my cat in their exam room ceiling. The assistants at the office proceeded to disassemble the dropped ceiling above the exam room and out into the lobby when we were finally able to locate Bobcat. She was crouched above the bathroom about 12 feet beyond where the dropped ceiling ended. We all hoped she would venture out at lunchtime when the office closed for an hour and became quiet, but nothing doing. She wouldn't come for treats, food or anything else. I eventually left the vet's to run some errands, with cell phone at the ready. About 4pm, I got the call that Bobcat had been captured. They ended up tearing off part of their wall in the bathroom to reach her.

You would think that I would get some sort of discount for all the mental anguish I experienced, but apparently they were determined to recoup their income from time and effort lost. They dispensed every shot, lab test, de-worming and year's worth of medicine that is usually optional. My bill was $85.35 and I came home with a cat that emerged from her crate completely unperturbed from the events of the day.