Epic Fail - Getting Miss Mouser Into The Cat Carrier

[Lrabbitt]

This did not go well. I planned to get Miss Mouser into the cozy cat carrier with her favorite, catnip-infused blankie and deliver her to the vet tonight for boarding. Tomorrow, I am flying several states over to spend Easter with my 92 year old mother who has no-one else.

Miss Mouser, a feral, has now been in the house since December 26th and we have made great progress. She is even allowing me to pet her. Until tonight's epic fail.

She was not having the pillowcase method or the towel-burrito method. She panicked, urinated all over, hissed and growled. It broke my heart to see the pain of betrayal in her eyes.

I relented and to her credit she ate dinner, sat by my feet (although shooting me dirty looks) and even camped out for a while next to the open cat carrier.

My flight boards at 12:30 pm tomorrow. Help!

 

[maggiedemi]

Can you quickly grab her in the towel with her claws facing away from you? Maybe wear gloves. My cats love their carrier. I leave it out all the time and I always talk in an excited voice when I tell them to get in their cage, like we're going somewhere exciting.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi ! Take a look at a recent thread titled "getting ready soon to take Sylvester for a grooming ". There are posts with suggestions for getting a stubborn cat into a carrier as well as for calming products. Good luck! Let us know what happens.

 

[Lrabbitt]

Can you quickly grab her in the towel with her claws facing away from you? Maybe wear gloves. My cats love their carrier. I leave it out all the time and I always talk in an excited voice when I tell them to get in their cage, like we're going somewhere exciting.

Thank you Maggie - How I wish Mouser loved her carrier! This feral is an escape artist - eluded Animal Control for 3 months. I worked an additional 3 months to befriend with food then get her inside after the first snow. She is so darned fast. I have no fear of scratches - it just seems impossible to get near her. The vet prescribed Children's Benadryl so I may try mild sedation in the morning.

 

[Furballsmom]

Here's a link to that thread that I mentioned - on a desktop I can do this, --not so good on a phone (especially now that I've been taught how by @betsygee - thanks!)
Getting Ready Soon To Take Sylvester For A Grooming, Dreading It Already....

 

[surya]

You've either got to scruff her or you have to put a yummy treat into the carrier and shut the door on her. Yummy treat could be Gerber chicken baby food. Cat's love that or some kind of seafood or tuna. If you've never scuffed a cat before, you can look it up on YouTube for instructions.

 

[vyger]

Have you considered just leaving her on her own for a few days? With enough food and water she should be fine by herself. If you are really worried about her going bonkers in the house you could confine her to one room. It would still be more space than a kennel cage. If your worried about company set the TV on a timer so it comes on for several hours a day so she can hear voices. It would be good if you had a timed feeder so it could portion out the food (dry food). Mine tend to pig out and eat everything right away. Anyway it would be an option you might consider.

 

[trudy1]

Yes leave her unless you’re going to be gone a long time. 3-4 days is no big deal. Just hide small piles of food throughout the house so she doesn’t pig out. Plenty of water and 2 litter boxes. Stuff with your scent and the radio on. My cats like cw but then their from the Midwest! She will be fine.

Have a nice visit and don’t worry.

 

[vyger]

Yes leave her unless you’re going to be gone a long time. 3-4 days is no big deal. Just hide small piles of food throughout the house so she doesn’t pig out. Plenty of water and 2 litter boxes. Stuff with your scent and the radio on. My cats like cw but then their from the Midwest! She will be fine.

Have a nice visit and don’t worry.

I like the idea of hiding the food. A few years ago I was hired by a company 200 miles away in another town to help set up the computers in a new clinic. They were really shorthanded and on a tight schedule. So for almost 2 months I was 4 days there and three days home. My cats did just fine for the days I was gone. I did try one of those on demand feeders that has a reservoir of food in the top and falls down into the bowl as they eat it. But my guys learned to scoop the food out so they could get it all out at one time. After all everybody knows the better stuff is where you can't get at it. So I tried making the hole smaller by making a slit with packaging tape to slow down the flow of food. They laid down upside down and chewed the tape off. I wish I could have had a video of that. The cat laying upside down in the feeder with its mouth open eating the food as it fell through the slit. Kind of like the kid that tries to eat ice cream directly from the machine. So they defeated that with no problem. If I had continued commuting I would have looked for a motorized one.

 

[Furballsmom]

LOL

 

[trudy1]

So how did the trip and return go? I hope you came back to everything in one piece and she’s still inside.