My cat tried to kill me at the vet.

I brought sweet Sam to the vet on Tuesday. At the Banfield Pet Hospital they have “complimentary office visits” for a couple of hours. I brought Sam here once before for a urinary tract infection. I liked the vet service but Sam hated everything and everyone that day. He was so worked up that day that the vets and the assistants couldn't get him from the holding kennel to the carrier. He was like the Tasmanian Devil - seriously.

Anyway, I thought I’d give them a try for vaccinations.
At the clinic there is a dog barking non stop in the grooming area. The phone is ringing and there are people coming and going. Who knows what the scents were that Sam could have been smelling with his little kitty smeller. Up on the scale. My baby boy weighs 15 lbs. He’s a big boy but really only about a pound over weight. I wish I were only a pound overweight.
We sit for a couple minutes by ourselves in the waiting room then are called into the exam room. There is fur all over the floor from the black Lab that was in there before us. The exam table didn’t look like it had been wiped off. The counter tops were noticeably in need of a wipe down. I let Sam get out of his carrier and explore. I read all the pamphlets in the room. Looked at all the models of the hair follicles, teeth, heart, claw, vertebrae, etc. I gave Sam belly rubs. He settled down next to me alert but content.
The assistant came in and entered information into the computer and yapped on about her four cats and her fiance. She left and I’m thinking she’s going to get the vaccine. We wait. Then we wait some more. It’s now been 45 minutes since we walked in the door.
The vet comes in and Sam gives her a hiss and a growl and a couple evil eyes. I hold him and calm him while she sticks a thermometer in his bum. He lets us know he’s pissed with a very long, low guttural growl that I didn’t know he had in him. The thermometer, I swear, was in there for a full minute before it beeped. I’d be pissed too.
Now for the shots. I’m thinking two quick shots and out the door. That’s how it usually is. He takes his shots like a man. Well, the distemper went in with a medium scream. I was holding him by the scruff lightly and the vet had a hold of his hind end. She pinched his skin and stuck the rabies needle in and Sam hit the roof. I think he must have caught a good three feet of air. He screamed bloody murder, peed on the table and took off for a corner all in two-thirds of a second (see Taz above). He managed to get my hand with a back claw and my arm. Luckily I had on a long sleeve shirt.

I couldn’t even look at him without him hissing or growling. Holy shit he hates me! And how was I going to get him back in the carrier? How was the vet going to give him his rabies vaccine? Somehow I got him to scoot in the carrier and we decided that I‘d bring him in the next day since he kind of hit that point of no return. The vet said she’ll just stick him real quick and be done. I'm thinking, yeah right. We're going to have to dope him up just to give him a vaccine. How are we going to get near him to dope him up?
Turns out it went perfect. He didn't even flinch. It was with a different vet and between all the waiting and thermometer- up-the-butt time he had had it. Plus, I think the first vet stuck him wrong. I felt horrible for traumatizing him two days in a row but he came through like a trooper. We went home had some treats and cuddled up 'cause, like I tell him all the time, "we're cuddlers, you and me".