Terror.

I just had a brush with death- my roommate and I tried to bring the cats to the vet clinic and it was, hands down, the most terrifying experience of my life. The female cat doesn't genearlly meow much, but she does a really convincing impression of a bear that's been kicked in the middle of a snow storm during hibernation. MRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRWWWWW. Boy cat was really reasonable and only presented moderate resistance (spread eagle across the door like a flying squirrel that didn't notice a window). After using the arm of the couch I had the carrier propped against as a monorail track a few times, I got him in and he didn't offer to punch holes in me which I appreciated- but girl cat was just having none of it. Letting her figure out that the carrier was where she was destined to go in the first time I tried to just pick her up and put her in sparked a reaction that was something akin to what happens to Edward Norton in the Incredible Hulk. After some negotiation that she was not at all interested in, we were asking the question: How many graduate students does it take to get an obviously angry cat armed with exacto knives into a carrier (without losing something vital, like most of the blood in your circulatory system after she gets done with you)? When I gathered the nerve to try and catch her as she ran past, I missed, and then caught her in the hallway, halfway up the wall (the WALL)- I really don't know how this happened, but like Houdini, girl cat apparently flies. By this point, I had on long sleeves and gloves and had to pick her up with a towel. I thought she was going to kill me! But we made it to the clinic on time, and the vet says it's not particularly uncommon for cats to show up in things like laundry hampers so I didn't feel so bad about the fact that the only thing we had big enough to get the cat into without getting killed was the kitchen garbage bin. When the vet asked her to after the exam, she dutifully walked into the carrier. It's safe to say that I lost a fair amount (all) of my dignity in the affair.