Tinka goes to the vet

A couple of days ago we took Tinka to the vet. This was a new experience for us and we weren't sure how she would react to being driven somewhere in the car.

She's been in the car loads of times--and has often tried to stow away when we go shopping. We then play the "let's let the humans chase me around the car" game. It can take a while before we actually leave.....

in quince tree

She had her basic jabs before she came to us. But we want her micro-chipped and also wanted to ask the vet if she was old enough for the "pillule anti-conception pour des chats" (cat contraception pill). As we don't know her exact age, we don't want her to come into season and find ourselves with a litter of kittens. Apart from the fact that our neutered  5 yr old tom, Shadow, might have a fit at a further feline invasion; there is the challenge of finding good homes for the kittens.

We got to the vet ok. Tinka travelled in our cat carrier and although she didn't howl it was obvious that she didn't like being in it. Little paws kept waving through the grille to pat our hands for attention (no claws) and she made it clear she wanted to see what was going on.

We were first at the vet which was great. We explained the situation and that we wanted her to have a 'fiche'  (chip). Being chipped was not nice. Here they insert it into the side of the neck; Shadow had his just between/slightly in front of, his shoulder blades. Poor Tinka: it obviously hurt like the blazes if the blur of claws and biting teeth were anything to go by (thankfully she missed- so no scratches or bites). Not a happy lady.

Then on to the teeth inspection to judge how old she is. Madam has been lying about her age!! She is older than we thought--according to the vet she was probably born around the end of May. Just as well we wanted the pill as she is of an age to go into heat at any time!

 

We want to have her sterilised but thought that as she's quite small it would be best to wait a bit as it is quite a major op. The pill seems a good interim solution. She gets 1 a week for the next month or so and then we book her in.

On the way back we thought we'd see how she'd do without the carrier. It was a breeze. We clipped the lead onto Tinka's collar and she sat/lay on Niall's knee pleased as punch watching everything going on around her and peering out the window. She seemed unfazed by the speed.

We've had a cat before who much preferred travelling loose in the car--she used to lie on the back ledge and other motorists did a double take when they realised it was a real black fluffy cat, not a stuffed one.

vantage point in living room

When we we got home we had stern words with Tinka and explained that going on the pill did not mean she could stay out all night with any French beau who took her fancy!

PS Apologies for lack of news. We've had a computer melt down which meant we couldn't post.