I might have known ….

It’s not usually a good sign when Mom comes home with a new cat carrier.

She can’t have missed my look of disapproval when she started reading the directions.

She seemed happy with the size. “This should be lots better,” she said. That’s because it’s really a small dog carrier. Just right for a pug, Jack Russell terrier, or a Shih Tzu, according to the specs.

“Okay, I guess I’ll try it out.”

“Well, I still don’t have that much room, but I guess my old carrier was smaller.”

I decided to watch this whole operation from inside my dishwasher box. Why does Mom still have the dishwasher box for me in the front room? She says it’s because she can.

She finished putting it together and went in the other room, to see if I would go in it by myself without her there.

Which I did, but I’m not saying I was happy about it. The door is much bigger than my old one, so at least that was a plus.

Aunt Gail said to put Panda and a little blanket inside to see if I would go in again.

It wasn’t bad in there, but still, I had the feeling it meant something was going to happen that I might not like.

I was right! A couple of days later Panda and I were at our yearly checkup with Dr. Duran.

After we waited for a few minutes, a really nice technician came in and weighed me. I’m still under 15 lbs., so there’s that. It’s got to be the Maine Coon genes, because nobody said I was overweight. They did say how big and pretty I was.

Then she took my temperature, which thankfully they now do in your ear. Then she said Dr. Duran would be in soon.

To be honest, the bigger you get, the fewer places there are to hide at the vet. The best place is usually just under Mom’s chair. Panda, on the other hand, decided to take a quick nap on top of our carrier.

When Dr. Duran came in, I was back inside my carrier. I like her a lot, and she’s been my vet since I was five weeks old, but I just didn’t want to come out this time. There was another cat in the waiting room who was meowing so loud that we could hear him in the exam room with the door shut. Not being sure what they were doing to him out there, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

She almost got me to come out by offering me a treat. I sniffed it but then decided to go back in my carrier.

“Just say no” to treats.

“I’ll just stay in here, thank you!”

Finally, I decided to come out, although I was not happy about it. Dr. Duran said my heart and lungs sounded great, my tummy was nice and soft, and my coat was immaculate.

My teeth are still good, too. After my exam, I went back in my carrier and waited for the techs to come get me and take me in the back for my shots, blood tests (since I’m 10 now), and to trim my nails.

Panda volunteered to stay in the exam room with Mom while I was in the back. We noticed that she was as traumatized as I was this time, mostly because she wasn’t sure how my new carrier was going to work out. She had been afraid the door on top might not latch properly and I might get out by accident, or that she wouldn’t be able to get me into it in the first place. As it was, we got there twenty minutes early, because she’d wanted to allow enough time to put me in the carrier and she didn’t want to drive too fast on the way.

It was taking a little longer than normal, so Mom was getting kind of nervous. Panda tried to entertain her by posing with the new cards she made for our blog. She gave them to all the girls at the office, and to Dr. Duran, too. On the back there is a QR code people can scan to go straight to the “Foster and Panda” category on the blog, and another one they can scan to go directly to our free coloring pages.

It turns out I was being a very bad boy and not letting the techs do my blood tests or trim my nails. I did manage to stay still for my shots. Dr. Duran prescribed some medicine for Mom to give me next time I go in, so I’ll be calmer. There is a little bottle with a medicine dropper inside the green container, so next time we’ll see how that works. I’ve always been pretty good at the vet, which is why everyone figured I must have been scared by the other cat who was doing all that meowing.

Needless to say, when we finally got home, I tried to give Mom my most irritated look. But I couldn’t stay mad for long, because to be fair, she was traumatized, too.

As of yesterday, my carrier was still in the front room, but it’s all good now. Mom said she was going to give me a break before I have to go back.