Last week, Jinx had to go in to get his shots. I brought his smelly carrier into the living room and he said “PLEH!” but didn’t go too far away. He had some treats and even deigned to eat a couple from off the edge of the carrier.

Then I picked him up and tried to put him in the carrier, and he lost his composure.

It’s so funny: he chews on me and claws on a regular basis, but apparently only when he’s in a good mood, because despite howling, hissing, and fighting, he didn’t claw or bite at all about going in the carrier.. After about 15 minutes and a lot of trauma, he was in and we went around the corner to the vet.

(If we lived in a place that was walkable, the vet is *totally* walking distance. But perhaps that would be even worse than the car.)

He was so miserable, much worse than ever before at the vet. He tried to hide behind the computer monitor. He tried to climb into my bag. After he discovered that he could fit either his front end  or back end in my  bag but not both and then moaned, I picked him up, and he put his paws around my neck and his his head.

Dr. Jim came in and gently tried to pull him away, and that was the only  time Jinx put his claws out – straight into the neck of my shirt so he could haul  himself back toward me.

Poor buddy. All he had done were weight, temp, and shots. But as Dr. Jim pointed out, his last visit involved x-rays and having to hang out all day, so he probably thought he was in for more of the same.

Five minutes after I let him out at home, he was in my lap. What a sweet boy he is: not a vindictive bone in him.

But we really really really need to start taking some rides in the car until he learns that it’s no big deal.