I want to thank my readers on my Terlingua Dreams blog for their advice and suggestions as to how to get Blanca to go into her pet carrier. I watched countless videos on YouTube but I was still apprehensive about being able to carry it out on my own.
The Veterinary Clinic in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila - México has a long waiting list for spay/neuters and Blanca was on a two-week wait so I had time to gain her trust. She is not afraid of me, when she first came to the house she would follow me around everywhere and I almost fell on various occasions. After her litter was born she was too busy to follow me but still comes and rubs herself on my leg and tennis shoes.
Decided to use this to my advantage and began petting her on the head. She seemed to like it and did not try to scratch me. Most of the videos I watched were of neighborhood stray cats and the use of pet traps. One lady caught two the night before and in her video mentioned the importance of not giving them food before surgery and of draping their cages with a tarp or towel to soothe them.
The kitchen is in the back of the house and I can close the door to keep her from the living area and most importantly my mother who is allergic to pet dander. I started letting her in to feed her while I put on soft music and talked to her in a soothing voice.
I debated whether or not to trap her the night before but decided against it. I barely slept that night thinking she might not show up in the morning or if she would freak out when I tried to get her in the carrier.
The morning of the surgery I hid the pet carrier after I had turned it on its side. I gave her two little treats as I draped a pair of old flannel pants around her body and made sure to hold her hind legs while I lowered her in without any issues. Oh yeah...I wore leather work gloves just in case, but thankfully she did not scratch me.
I placed her in the back seat of my car but did not want to drape a towel over the pet carrier as it was a warm morning. She did cry for a while and then she pooped!!!!! So obviously she had something to eat either last night or in the morning.
The vet took her out of the carrier and then placed her in a cage and I came home with a stinky mess. The line to cross was very short and rather than one officer they had three plus the guy who handles the dog. They asked me what I had to declare and asked me to pop open the trunk. Before I did, I warned them that my cat had just pooped...they did not seem phased, so watched with glee as they opened it, caught a whiff stepped away and rapidly closed it...jajajajaja....it was funny :)
I picked her up in the afternoon with a now clean carrier. There were so many people there and it took about an hour for them to call me in and give me instructions on her care. She is a stray what part of that do they not understand?
On one of the videos, it shows that stray or feral cats have a little notch made on their ear by the vet so that you can tell if they have been spayed or neutered. This particular vet tattoos a black mark on her stomach but agreed to also make a notch on her ear.
Blanca has bad luck, in all the years that I have taken critters to México they have never asked me for my pets medical records and today they did. Lucky for her she also got her rabies and other shots today and was allowed into the USA :)
