Catch me if you can

I am an animal lover.  To that end, I am the proud adoptive parent to two cats.  The one (my old guy) is so well behaved as to be boring.  I've never had a cat that got into so little trouble in all my life.  Then there's the "blonde" cat.  She learned her manners from the old guy, but she is much more mischevious and also a lot more cuddly.  She's also a psycho cat. 

The blonde cat came to me at 6 weeks old, near death.  A feral cat, she had a horrible upper respiratory infection that lasted the next three months of her life.  My opinion is that had a lasting effect on the development of her lungs, because through the years, she's continued to have sneezing and breathing issues, although never very serious.  Lately, she's sounded more and more like a snufflupugus, to the point of my calling the vet to make her an appointment (she's now 10 years old).  This little psycho cat is accustomed to hiding from everyone, only making herself known in small groups of people (one or two is her preferred "crowd" size), and although she's very affectionate, she's also very skittish.  Easily spooked.  The old guy cat used to sit at the bottom of the steps and wait for her, then jump when she rounded the corner.  That gave her fits for a week, where she was afraid to move.

But I digress.  I made the vet appointment for her, concerned that her wheezing is somewhat worse than usual.  So I came home from work.  Who says cats don't understand?  She kept her distance from me, led me on a chase around the house for 45 minutes before she finally threatened to go to her hidey hole where no one can get near her in any way, shape or form.  So I called and rescheduled with the vet.  I had the last appointment of the day and I was already late.  Funny thing.  The minute I hung up the phone, there she was. Standing at my feet.  She knew it was too late to go.

Tonight, I figured I'd just grab her and go - no chasing her around the house, no offering her treats or trying to get her into a kitty carrier of any shape.  But guess what?  She was already in her hidey hole when I got home and 3 hours later, she still hasn't come down. {sigh}  So I've rescheduled with the vet yet again.

After our skirmish last night, once I settled in to watch some television, she showed up and curled up beside me very close (as if to apologize for her bad behaviour).  Something tells me she won't be coming out to cuddle tonight - and she didn't even have any advance warning tonight.  But tomorrow, there will be no saving her.  Once I catch sight of her, I'm going to corral her where I can get to her easily.

Reminds me of when I fed vegetables to my son.  You'd think I was trying to poison him!  At least with children you can explain the benefits of what you're trying to do, even if they don't appreciate it. (He eats his veggies now, but such a fuss when we was growing up!).

So still playing catch me if you can with the blonde cat.  I imagine she'll surface at some point later this evening. 

And the old guy cat?  He'll go.  He was jumping into the kitty carrier last night, following me around.  "I'll go.  Look Stupid (speaking to the blonde cat), it's not so bad.  C'mon.  It'll be fun."  Yeah, but this from the cat that used to jump out of hiding and scare the fur off her!

Fun and games.