More cat trauma

We had been notified by the apartment folks that we needed to be out of the apartment all day today so that they could fix the bathtub – a maintenance worker had determined that it needed to be resurfaced, evidently. Since there would be serious fumes involved, we couldn’t return until evening. That’s all well and good for Mark and me, but for the cats… not so much.

The only plan we could come up with, outside of boarding them at a kennel, was to take them in the car with me for the day – and if it was warm enough, just sit in a parking lot somewhere and read (they really DON’T like to be in a moving vehicle) or if the heater was necessary, drive around periodically – all day. Not a great plan, but adequate to the requirements. (Besides, I found a great outlet mall on the internet, north of Seattle that I could ‘drive’ to, and whose parking lot would surely do nicely…)

So we got up early, cleared the bathroom of personal items and cleaned the tub, loaded the cats in their carriers, loaded the car up with a litter box, water and food, warmed up the car for them, and finally moved the carriers down to the car. And waited for the ‘workers’ to come. Of course they were late, and when they finally did arrive they announced that they had a work order for the ‘surround’ not the tub, and so the ‘surround’ was what they were going to fix. Now there wasn’t really anything wrong with the ‘surround’ but they searched and found a little crack, peeled it to make it bigger, agreed that it would only take them 10 minutes to fix it, and that fumes wouldn’t really be a problem. I could just stay. No need to be gone all day.

Paperwork is paperwork, I guess. Must follow the work order, after all.

Doesn’t it sound like we are doomed to repeat the whole drill sometime soon, when the apartment people realize they used the wrong terminology – ‘surround’ instead of ‘tub?’ I don’t even want to think about it.

When the workers left, I went back to the car to bring the cats back inside – Maddie first. I brought her in, opened the carrier door so she could get out, and went back to the car for Frik. By the time I got back to the door with him, Maddie was meowing her little heart out. Heaven help us if she is ever really separated from her Frik.

Now they are clearly disturbed, nervous and ‘contemplating’ the incomprehensible again. It’s going to be a long day. But at least we aren’t spending it in the car.

This was traumatic enough.