Cat Nervous Breakdown

Well guys, I broke Sally.  Not physically!  The dude is completely fine.  He’s eating and pooping and sleeping…all the usual things. No, I seem to have broken him psychologically.  What did I do?  Excuse me!  I did nothing.  It is all very peculiar.

Especially because I can tell you almost the precise moment when my dear Sally puss had his cat nervous breakdown.

It was a couple of Thursdays ago between 2-3pm.  Yes, I’m not kidding.  Well what was going on around here that would have given him a breakdown?  A whole lot of all the same things that go on around here if not daily, then at least regularly.

It was really hot that day, but it had been hot all week; we were all acclimatizing.  It was like any other afternoon, I was at my desk, he was on the cardboard cat scratcher in the next room, Anabel was under the futon (that is her preferred mid-day napping spot these days). We had just had company over the night before and Sally had made a point of laying in the middle of the dining table until it was time for dinner, then he spent the rest of the evening on his chair at the table, being a very gracious and charming host.

Back to Thursday: The gardeners showed up, just like they do every other week.  I went around and closed up the doors and windows to try to keep the noise and dust down a little bit. And Sally didn’t move; he was not bothered.

And then suddenly, he was VERY bothered.  I have never seen him that bothered.  Even at the vet’s office!  Certainly not when there was a skunk under the house (wait…a what where?  Oh yes, I’ll have to tell you that story another day).

I didn’t want to even tell you guys

For a whole week, he was skittish and wouldn’t come out of the front room. If I managed to get him next to me and made a sudden movement, he would bolt.  He jumped every time Mr. Man makes a loud noise.  It was a little ridiculous.

Do you want to know who was even more upset than Sally?  Mr. Man. I just could not convince him that the cat was fine. 

Sally was still eating (as long as I brought his food into the front room) and he wasn’t hurting anywhere. Our unlimited vet visit kitten plan had just expired, and I was not about to spend $50 to take him to the vet to be told there is nothing wrong with him just to try to make Mr. Man feel better.  My solution was to ignore his strange behavior as much as possible and see if he would get over it.  Worst case scenario, we had broken our friendly, easy-going cat and were going to be stuck with a nervous, high-strung one for the next 15-20 years.  Oh well, been there, done that.

Slowly, over the course of the next week, Sally’s behavior went back to normal (and so did Mr. Man’s). He seems now to have completely recovered from his cat nervous breakdown.

I love it when ignoring your problems actually does make them go away!