Poor Brando.  He had to endure being a feral kitty and living on the
streets for who knows how long, before I trapped him and worked with
him to turn him into the now loving, wonderful lap-cat that he is.

Last night, he was apparently peacefully sitting on one of the cat
condo thingys.  I was hiding the Cool Room, while DH was downstairs.
There was a loud noise of some sort (best guess from DH being a
neighborhood brat who decided it would be fun to run up and smack the
aluminum back door really loudly.  I'll get that little #$%^% one of
these days.)

So Brando takes off like a shot, heading for his favorite hiding spot.
And forgetting there is a compact stereo system in his way.  He
managed to smack himself into it to the point where it moved (and it
does *not* have wheels) before diving under the end table and hiding.

DH comes up and tells me what's going on and I call and call to try to
get him out.  Finally, reluctantly, he comes out far enough that DH
can grab him and bring him upstairs to me.

I'm worried he's hit his head.  He is still terrified, huge pupils,
ears twitching.  I send DH for a small flashlight.  I am apparently
having an "ER" moment, because I think I should use the flashlight to
make sure his pupils are reactive and he doesn't have a concussion.  I
have no idea if this is sound reasoning for a cat, but I do it anyway.
His pupils react just fine, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

I pet and touch him all over, and he doesn't seem to be sensitive
anywhere; just spooked.

It takes him a good half-hour to calm down, but finally, he gets into
his favorite waterbed position, big butt on the bed, head and arms
hanging over the side railing.

What a relief!

Ginger-lyn

Home Pages:
 http://www.spiritrealm.com/summer/
 http://www.angelfire.com/folk/glsummer (homepage & cats)
 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~summer/index.htm (genealogy)
 http://www.movieanimals.bravehost.com/ (The Violence Against
                        Animals in Movies Website)