Beggar on Vacation

Many people think I only have one cat because they have never seen the second one. Well here she is for you to see.

Her name is Beggar. She was born in our garage and has only left in order to go to the vet - which she doesn't care to do, thank you very much. That is until this Spring. We started planning our vacation to Washington, DC, and I wanted to take Beggar. It's not because I am addicted to having my kitties with me (although Adam would say he wonders if I love them more than him sometimes).

Here's the situation - Beggar has had seizures for over a year now. She is on twice daily medication for them but everytime I leave her for more than overnight, when I get home she has a seizure. She is also a very shy cat by nature and doesn't let many people see her, let alone catch her and give her her medication (including Adam). So when I leave, she doesn't get her meds as regularly as she needs. Plus, my additional theory is that my leaving stresses her, especially with others trying to give her her medication. So I decided to try taking Beggar on vacation.

To prep her, I would grab her in the mornings (unless she was hiding) and she would ride with me in the van to take Kaylyn to school. The first day she was terrified. The next trip she started looking out the windows. She often hid but anytime she wasn't hiding, she got to go on a car ride. I wanted her to not associate being in the van with the vet only.

Vacation day arrived and I loaded the van. I also loaded a litter box and all of Beggar's gear. After everyone else was in the van, I grabbed Beggar and climbed in too. And off we went.

Day 1 - she sat in my lap the entire time, never sleeping but occasionally looking out the window. We arrived at our hotel and she immediately hid in a corner. At some point during the night, she did use the litter box.

Day 2 - Beggar became adventurous. She explored the entire van and finally picked "her spot".... on top of the cooler (see the first picture above). Eventually, during our 14 hours in the van on Saturday, she became comfortable enough to sleep. Note that she is using Kaylyn's bear "Peppermint" as her pillow.

Both of our girls were upset that Beggar wouldn't sit with them. We tried putting her in laps but she'd just jump down and go where she wanted. Once at my Aunt's, we all stayed in the basement. Beggar picked her hiding spots - in the window sill and also behind the TV. She did great, although she started a routine of crying in the middle of the night. And she didn't sleep on my feet (her normal spot) until the night before we left to come home.

Back on the road again, Beggar checked out the entire van and climbed into her spot on top of the cooler. Half an hour down the road, Adam misread a sign and had to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. We all got a little jostled but were fine and started down the road. Then I heard Beggar crying. It wasn't a normal cry. I turned around but couldn't see her. Adam couldn't find a place to stop so I finally climbed over all our stuff into the back seat. There I discovered the problem.

When Adam hit the brakes, Beggar must have been on top of the cooler. She fell to the floor, into her litter box. The cooler then fell on top of her. She was trapped. I got her out and buckled in the cooler so we wouldn't have a repeat. I climbed back into my seat (an amazing accomplishment).

A few minutes later, we heard Morgan cry out with glee, and Kaylyn start pouting. When I turned around, this is what I found.

Beggar stayed on Morgan's lap for 30 minutes or so. The whole time Kaylyn complained that it wasn't fair. Beggar then moved back to my lap and stayed there the entire day - she wasn't acting normal so we think the fall either hurt her or scared her. Today she acted normal.

We got home 3 hours ago, and unfortunately, Beggar's had 2 seizures since arriving home. Waiting for a return call from the vet. Apparently, the vacation did stress her more than we realized. I just wonder why she waited until now to have the seizures.