Friday, June 25, 2004
 

Wheeze

Alice's old tag was a simple plastic affair from PetSmart. It featured my last name and phone number, nothing else. Anxiety-prone obsessive person that I am, that wouldn't do, so I got her a new one with her name, my initials and last name, my address, my phone number, and an alternate phone number, plus a reflective surface. Anxiety soothed (if not alleviated).

Putting the new tag on her collar was, in theory, a simple proposition: Remove old collar; remove old tag; apply new tag; put collar back on.

Steps 1-4 went fine; the split ring was a pain in the neck to get on the collar, but I finally got it on the buckle. Alice was perfectly well-behaved, as she always is, when I removed her collar and put it back on. She even let me give her neck a through brushing while the collar was off.

Alas, I forgot step 5: let Alice sniff the new tag before putting the collar on. This cat thinks that she must sniff every new object that enters this household, no matter how big or small. It's quite odd, because she sniffs more than your average dog. She's not even above sniffing a new object of interest for several minutes straight, often doing so audibly. Strange, in other words.

So I forgot to let her do that. So she utterly spazzed, trying to sniff (and then to chew on) the new tag. I realized my mistake immediately and became afraid that she'd break a tooth or something on the tag.

Let the races begin. She likes being chased, anyway, but now she was hyped and weirded out by the new collar. I chased her up, down, all over the house, with her hiding under furniture, me nudging her out, etc. I finally cornered her in the bedroom, literally with a flying (but gentle) tackle. I got the collar off, let her smell the tag a bit, gave her a few minutes to bond, then put the collar back on. She's been perfectly placid ever since.

Parenting is difficult business.

Elvisette philosophized at 9:48 PM