As I mentioned in my previous post, on Saturday evening, I tucked Morris into his temporary condo (aka ginormous dog crate), but didn't latch the door. The door sticks when you open it or close it, so I figured there was no real need to latch the door. Plus, somehow, with everything Morris had gone through, it seemed like a callous act when surely, SURELY, the door would hold.
Sunday dawned, and after buzzing about doing my usual morning chores, it was time to check on Morris. He and the rest of the foster kitties are kept in my finished basement (very nice, very big, totally set up for kitties and kids) for their safety. That's a topic for another day and also not pertinent to this story. I opened the door to the basement and who should I see on the landing, but Morris. My initial reaction was that it was his brother, which made no sense as his brother had recently gone to his forever home, so it took me awhile to process Morris' true identity.
I should explain the layout of the steps. To get to the main level from my basement, there are ten steps, a landing, a turn, and then another five steps. So, in the night, after busting loose from his condo, Morris climbed the ten steps to get to higher ground so he could feel safe. No telling how long it took him to climb those steps, however, I can tell you it took him all of thirty seconds to run down the steps. As soon as he saw me, he took off running. All together now: OUCH! Thankfully, he cornered himself in the bathroom not far from the steps.
At this point, I have an angry kitty, who is cornered, hissing and spitting at me. He has wedged himself between the toilet and the wall of the shower, so catching him promises to be really really easy...if I can just get around the hissy party. This is where the e-collar becomes a huge advantage for me and a huge disadvantage for him. I took the end of a plunger (the handle end, not the plunger end...I'm not cruel!) and tipped his e-collar down. This allowed me to scruff him and put him back in his crate. Not what I was expecting on his second day post op, but I was definitely happy to see he was confident enough to move about.
Later that evening, I let him out of the crate to stretch his legs. He's not really interested in moving around in the crate, even though there's plenty of room for him to do so. I knew as long as he had the e-collar on, he would be fairly easy to catch. He moved into the room in the basement where most of the kitty toys are kept and ensconced himself on a donated dog pillow in there. When it was time to catch him to put him back in his crate, he put up the expected fight, but once again, the e-collar worked to his advantage as he cornered himself allowing me to catch him. I vowed then that his walkabouts were done as they were too stressful on his hips and too worrisome for me. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt his hips in the process of catching him, and being in the crate makes it easier for me to socialize him anyway. We'll see how he feels about that!
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