Most of us have encountered this hide-and-seek game when it's time for a trip to the vet. How do our babies *know* when we work so hard to trick them? :)

I had another use for my carrier on Friday. We had quite the adventure here.

Friday morning, after a killer week at school, I was awake kinda early, so I decided just to get up and maybe finally get to read my morning papers online. I have been seriously out of the news loop since school started simply because I've had no time for reading or watching news. I fed my inside kitties, and then, as I opened the door to feed outside kitties, one of them ~ Deuce's littermate ~ jumped over my foot and got inside.

The poor little guy was terrified and went ripping through the house ~ and I mean *ripping* ~ tearing up things in his path mostly in the bathroom and bedroom, where he went up the curtains, down the curtains, and up the curtains again to perch atop them ~ howling and knocking down my pink-rose garland there along with a wall-hanging that had belonged to my mama.

After sharing a bed with six kitties overnight, I am wheezy on a good day, but after chasing this kitty, I was *really* gasping, and my attempts to calm him down weren't working very well. I must have sounded like a wheezy monster to the little guy.

I finally got him off the curtains, and then he ran to my office and hid in a corner, underneath a cabinet. As much as I *HATED* to bother her at 5:15 in the morning, I had to call neighbor Elly for help. I had to get ready for school soon, and with my arthritic back, I knew I could never get down on the floor and get both the kitty and me up again if I happened to catch him.

Bless her heart, Elly came right over. We hoped to lure him into a carrier baited with some canned kitty food, but he didn't budge. After about 15 minutes of futile waiting, I decided a more active approach was needed. I lay on the floor, reached under the cabinet *carefully,* and scruffed him. He wasn't happy, but with the scruffing, I didn't get scratched.

Elly held the carrier tipped up so that I could drop him inside, and then she let him out outside. He was *VERY* happy to be outside again. My own fuzzy half dozen were amazingly calm throughout the whole ordeal though Deuce showed no signs of remembering his littermate ~ and vice versa. However, I was a mess.

At least our adventure happened on a Friday, not a Monday! :) After school, I took Elly out for her favorite, Chinese, to say thanks. I'd still be lying on the floor with the kitty huddled in the corner without her help.

This morning I kicked the door before I opened it so that any kitties gathered there would scoot back a bit. I didn't have to worry about Friday's kitten. He watched from a distance until the food was in place. :)