You may remember that back in January our cat Pepper was
sick and had to go to the vet He came home with anti-nausea pills and a liquid antibiotic. Our instructions were to administer them both twice a day until they were gone.
The pills lasted eight days, but the bottle of medicine took more than two weeks to use up. Hubby Tony, Son Donald, and I shared the duty of squirting the syringe of medicine into Pepper's mouth. Whenever I did it, I told him I was sorry. Pepper didn't believe me. Soon he was running away every time I came into the room, and he took his naps under the bed in a spare bedroom where he couldn't be reached. At meal time he made me go into the room first so he couldn't be trapped, then quickly scrambled out when he'd eaten.
Yesterday we squirted out the last of the medicine. I was hopeful Pepper would observe the bottle being tossed out and put two and two together, but he scooted out of the room before I made it over to the trash can. Today he still ran away every time I looked in his direction, but right before I gave him his second meal of the day he licked a bit of hairball medicine (his Saturday treat) off of my finger after sniffing it to make sure I wasn't trying to trick him.
Hopefully, as his medicine-taking experience fades into the distant past Pepper will forget his trauma. I wonder how long it will take?
interesting....yes, I wonder.
ReplyDeleteHa! I believe cats remember for a long, long time! Seriously, he'll probably get over it in time. Cats really hate being forced to do anything, don't they? Poor little guy.
ReplyDeleteBribes help bring forgetfulness... ;-)
ReplyDeleteAw...he'll forget quickly. When Jack was a tiny kitten I went to touch his nose and accidentally gave him an electric shock. It not only scared him, but hurt, too! He ran away every time he saw me for a couple of days!
ReplyDeleteI tell my cats I'm sorry, too, when I have give them meds. haha.
I think the healing process has already begun. Last night as I was falling asleep I felt Pepper climbing up on my pillow to lay next to my head. (Of course if you asked him he'd deny anything happened.)
ReplyDeleteDon't cats scratch or bite when you have to give them something they don't like? I've never had a cat so I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI got good at holding Pepper in between my legs so he couldn't move.
DeleteI had a sickly kitty who had to take a lot of different kinds of medication during his lifetime. I'm pretty sure he hated me for the first five years of so of his life. Every time I turned around, I was shoving some kind of meds into him. He mellowed out as he got older though, and I know he loved me when he passed on.
ReplyDeleteYou've made me thankful our medicine experience was short-term.
DeleteSo good to read your comment about that Pepper climbed on to your pillow and that hopefully this signalled the start to the healing process. You've twigged my memory about the time I had to pick up my boss's cat from the vet and ran out of gas. Nightmare. Thank you for my next blogging idea!
ReplyDeleteI'd looking forward to reading it!
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