Appointment booked. Box strategically positioned, door open. Empty food dishes stacked on the hayloft stairs. A single aluminum can held aloft, index finger looped through the pull tab. And a captive feline audience.
Our plan: to lure our quarry -- Felix -- with a can of wet food, a few reassuring pats, and then snatch him up, cram him in the cat box, and deposit him at the vet's for a fun-filled day of castration.
And we successfully executed our plan.
But we didn't stick the landing.
It's hard to say who's to blame -- whether I released the kitten prematurely or Martin shut the box too slowly. But as the cat door clattered open and a frantic mass of claws and fur streaked out the barn, I heard Robert De Niro's trademark drawl, in his role as a police officer in the movie Cop Land: I offered you a chance when we could have done something....and you bleeeew it! You blew it!
We did blow it. One fateful error and Felix is positively uncatchable. Cast your eyes in his direction and he disappears into the cavernous loft.
So I'll give it a month -- 30 days to win him over. After that, it's time to pull out the big guns...and stock up on the rotisserie chicken...
I can hardly catch one of my cats to take her to the vet, and she's an indoor cat! All I have to do is walk in the room and she can tell from the look on my face what is up. Looking at her doesn't work, and neither does looking away from her. Good luck with Felix!
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