She gets me sometimes when I forget about her ‘murder button’, which is located somewhere on her belly. She openly invites belly rubs, and anyone else can get by with it, but when I can’t resist any longer, I’ll rub the belly until she suddenly clamps onto my arm or hand with every stiletto in her arsenal. My sudden yelp causes her to release me before real carnage begins. She’s closer to me than anyone else otherwise, and I think she feels entitled to play rough with me.

response to me rubbing her belly. She did it when younger, but allows brief belly rubs now without any risk to my hand and arm. Instead of attacking me, she just turns over to deny me belly access when she's had enough.

Other people can touch Ember's head, rub behind her ears, and pet her shoulders. When it comes to sensitive areas like her belly, I am the only person who has that degree of physical contact privilege with Ember. Not so with vets. As soon as they see Ember coming into the exam room, they reach for protective equipment and a muzzle. Actually, they hear her threatening growls before they see her.

She has a strong sense of personal physical space and feline dignity rights.

She’s barely a teen in human years. I will still try to rub her belly without the mauling, however.

So that mankind might know the pleasure of caressing the tiger.

Last night was a wild night for the cats at my place. I had one across my upper legs who insisted on kicking them with his back legs, while his sister did the same to my feet. At the same time, my orange tabby decided to treat her "mousie" like a real mouse. Apex predator, that one! Heck, even the dog was walking the house most of the night. I think we must be a dark moon. They don't act like this on a full moon... it's always the dark moon!

We are in my bathroom under a tornado warning until 3:15 pm

at least now I have a "panic room" on the main floor of my house. Makes trying to get 9 cats into the carriers in there a little bit easier.

severe thunderstorms with hail and 60 mph wind.

Ember hates being confined and is not happy. I always worry about her reaction to emergencies because she hides where I can't reach her. But this time, I pulled out her carrier, lured her to it with her feather toy and she went right inside.

I am keeping her in the bathroom until the storms are over so I don't have to search for her later, if necessary. She is not happy about it. Does not understand why, of course.

Our cats loved those rod and reel toys. Brought back so many good memories, thank you!
If I may, I want to tell you about a medication that helped my Sebbie at the vet. Seb had a whole host of health problems at the end of his life. He had to make vet visits frequently. It was torture for both Seb and the vet. We tried other medications for anxiety, but they didn't work very well. In fact one medication had the opposite effect--revved him up and he bit one of the vets pretty badly. When he was younger we just withheld food before a vet visit and the vet gave him some gas in the "fish tank". As he aged they were afraid to use the fish tank because of spinal problems and heart issues. Then my vet read about using Gabepentin, a pain med, for anxiety. Oh, my goodness, what a game changer! Seb went from trying to kill everyone to "Oh, wow, Dude, can you hear the colors?!" I remember my vet saying, "I never thought I'd be able to pet him like this!" as she stroked him after an exam while he lay quietly on the exam table. He still gave a few token growls now and then, but she could do every thing she needed to do and we didn't have to starve him beforehand and sweat out each visit. That was on a very low dose, too! You might talk to your vet about using it, could make vet visits easier for everyone.
Again, hope everyone is safe and well.

She gets one the night before an appointment and another one 2 hours before the appointment. I break open the capsule and mix the contents with a teaspoon of Fancy Feast. I also spray Feliway on a towel and put it in her carrier.

The problem is when she has to have an unscheduled visit and there is no time for the med to take full effect. Fortunately, she is very healthy and unscheduled visits are not common.

That works for simple checkups and vaccination visits. She can be distracted in the exam room with treats while being examined or getting a quick jab.

But it does not work as well when she needs a more thorough exam of something specific, like the time she had an eye infection and the vet needed to hold her close while opening the eye to put drops in.

It does not work at all for clipping her claws. She gets totally outraged over having her paws held and having anything done to them. They have to sedate her for that and a $20 nail clipping becomes a $100 or more visit.

When I was out of town visiting relatives, I boarded her at the vet's for a week. I hoped that a week of being fed and talked to by their staff, plus getting acclimated to the sounds and smells would make her more comfortable there. It did not.

When I returned, they told me that she had alternated between depression when alone and ferocity (growling, hissing, claws out) when they approached, even with food. They gave her Gabapentin but it did not help.

The vet assistant asked me to go with her to get Ember from her cage. It was a pitiful sight. Ember was in a back corner of the cage where she had completely buried herself under a blanket. All that was visible was the lump that her body formed.

I called Ember's name and the blanket moved slightly. It was like she had given up and did not believe that she had really heard my voice. I spoke again and she peeked out at us. When she saw me, she wiggled out from the blanket and came to the cage door, rubbing against it as I poked my fingers inside. When I put my fingers through the cage door holes, the vet assistant drew in her breath and said, "Be careful."

But Ember purred. I held open the carrier door and the vet assistant opened the cage. Ember quickly, peacefully went into the carrier.

At home, she examined every room and rubbed her scent on everything. She did not let me out of her sight for days. I felt guilty for having left her there for a week.

We also had problems with unscheduled visits. Just winged it as best we could. I just wanted Ember to not go through what Sebbie did for years with having to be gassed for an exam. Sebbie lived for 20 years and 5 months. He died in October of 2022. It wasn't until the last few years of his life that he was able to go to the vet with Gabapentin as his "mellow" pill. Our babies deserve everything we can do to make them more comfortable. They give us so much more than we could ever give them in return! Thanks for your reply. Take care.
P.S. Feliway is also a game changer for anxious babies. I had a diffuser at home long before we started the Gabapentin, also sprayed it on the towel for the vet's. Really made a difference. Still had to gas Seb, though. Never left Seb anywhere. One of us stayed home with him. Since he had stress-related epilepsy we couldn't use anyone else and Seb wouldn't have let anyone else close to him for the pills anyway. I was the med person for several years, so I had to be home with him for both the am and pm dose of his epilepsy meds. I was lucky enough to stay home with my son so when Seb started with epilepsy at age 4, I was "it". As my son grew up Seb also let him dose him. My husband helped when he could, but he could only do that if he took off from work. My husband wasn't as confident in pilling, but Seb let my son and me dose him with no trouble. He was great about toenails, but his brother, Osie,--had to be held and multi-treated! Hell hath no fury like a cat when you mess with their feet!
You know, we can't ever do everything perfectly. That's just life. We just wing it as best we can. I'm sure Ember forgave being left at the vet for a week--eventually. Too bad we can't explain in their language. It would make everyone happier. You left Ember with the best intentions--good care from responsible caretakers--only she didn't get the memo. Don't know if you have human children, too, but guilt comes with the job, human or furkid. I do know that Ember loves you and trusts you. Her actions when you came back to get her prove that. There's so many things I'd like to do over again, but I am learning that you just have to fix what you can, and move on if you can't. Some days I can do that pretty well, but then I get "triggered" and have to try again!
Glad to hear from you. Some of the storms have been pretty severe lately. Take care.

I am in western NY, near Buffalo. Weather radar picked up several swirling cloud formations in western NY that could have touched down in my area. So, I got two tirnado warnings on my phone to take shelter immediately. One of them was accompanied by a US Weather Service alert that broke into regular radio programming with a tornado warning specifically naming my city and surrounding areas. Scared me half to death.

The tornado forming clouds moved on and touched down about 30 to 40 miles away from me. Two other tornadoes hit areas just south of Buffalo. One town south of Buffalo had extensive damage and was declared an emergency disaster area.

No humans were killed, but there were a few injuries. In rural areas, some livestock were killed. Several homes had extensive damage and some were destroyed completely due to high winds, fallen trees, and debris, even in areas where tornadoes did not touch down.

The scary part was knowing that those funnel clouds were dangling around and not knowing where they would land or what direction they would take when they did.

My immediate area got a heavy downpour that passed quickly.

The system that spawned the storms and tornadoes was the remnant of the Beryl tropical storm as it passed through our northern climate.

Ember was great throughout this. She got into her carrier without any problem. Did not like being confined to the bathroom inside the carrier until the warnings and watches were over. She scratched the sides of the carrier, but settled down for a nap when I said it was ok and spoke calmly to her.

Take care and stay well.