Pets

has issues about socializing.

Ember was super well behaved on her first visit until she got the shot. She whimpered but it was quick so she settled down. Next visit for shots, she was calm but wary. Got quite indignant over another shot, but the real deal breaker for her was getting her claws clipped. She went into a total feline rage and needed two assistants to hold her through it.

Next visit, she growled and hissed the minute the vet walked into the exam room. It was for her last kitten shot.

When she was spayed, the vet staff said that she was "quite difficult." A few weeks later, I took her in for an eye infection. (Don't know how it developed since she's indoors, but she was playing with a neighbor's puppy in the hall of our apt building.) When I looked inside her carrier at the vet's, she was trembling with fear from head to toe. It was a different vet (same practice) from before and I showed him how terrified she was. He talked to her a bit and calmed her down first. But she still growled and tried to bite his hand, so he put a muzzle on her.

She really hates vet visits now. In her mind, they are bad people who violate her sense of space and dignity and cause her pain with shots and surgery. Consequently, the vets and staff are now less than fond of her, although her last visit went well. I smothered a towel in her carrier with Felliway, took her out of the carrier before the vet entered the room, and started feeding her treats from their office stash. She was so occupied with the treats that she barely noticed the shot.