kitty time out

so the big move is today. and i'm at work. granted, it's not like i would've been a huge help anyway since i can't really lift too much without everyone looking at me like i've grown a second head. talk about overprotective! it's all good though.

in preparation for today, we've been taking stuff over to my folks' house including the fish & the cats.

when we moved into this apartment last year, it was the first time that the cats had "moved". (other than when i brought them home from my friends house, they'd pretty much never been outside the house except for vet/groomer visits.) bob does NOT like being in the cat carrier. he cries and it's so pitiful that it breaks my heart every time. i don't remember gabby being as pitiful last time as she was last night.

see, i KNOW that they hate the cat carriers. i KNOW that they'll most likely cry the WHOLE time that they're in them. i had FORGOTTEN, however, about what they did the last time we moved.

in short, they put themselves in kitty time out. the apartment has a bathroom with two doors. one into the hall and the other into the extra bedroom. so that was the natural place to release the cats when we moved in, as they wouldn't be in the way or try to run out the open door. what i didn't count on was that BOTH of them would immediately put themselves face first into the nearest corner they could find. it was at once heartbreakingly pathetic and funny at the same time. after a few days they got used to the new place and things were fine.

last night though? OMG! we got bob into the carrier no problem (which was a surprise in itself.) and made plans to corral gabby. here's where i need to give a little backstory. when gabby was maybe 1 or 2 she was severely traumatized. like any cat, she was curious about a plastic bag from target that was sitting on the floor. so she stuck her head through the handle to peek inside the bag. well, the bag was empty and she heard a noise or something and tried to back quickly out of the bag. bad idea. it got stuck around her neck, which would have been ok, but since she was spooked she took off and the bag looked more like a cape. the noise scared her even more and she ran into the garage and hid for hours. finally my dad was able to coax her out (she was originally his cat) and remove the bag but ever since then she's been a little weird. hides all the time, etc. except with me. she always wants to be with me.

so, when we moved, it was a great surprise to find that over time, she became less "freaky". she still doesn't like strangers too much, but she started coming to vrock the last few months, eating treats and even climbing up onto his lap for attention. then we had to move her last night and i have to wonder how far back she'll regress.

after trapping her in the bedroom last night so we could get her into the carrier, we took them over to the parents house. we let them both out upstairs and stood back. presumably she rocketed out of her carrier and straight down the stairs towards my old room. i'd left the door not quite closed and she darted in. and found the furthest corner of the room she could and put herself in time out. i talked to my mom this morning to see if she'd come upstairs at ALL last night and found out she hadn't. not a huge surprise. bob, on the other hand, cried for a bit after letting him out and then was fine. he's much more a people cat than she is.

i hope that she recovers soon. it'll get worse before it gets better though. vrock & the movers will be there in a few hours unloading the "non storage" items and she really won't have anywhere to run to then. poor baby.

think she'll forgive us?