Duke is a smart cat. He’s figured out that before I grab him and stuff him into a box for a drive to the vet, I first lock the various portals so that he can’t get out of the house.

So now when he notices that the doors are closed and the cat door blocked, he runs for cover and hides behind the bed.

Fair enough. But now Romeo has hurt his right rear leg, and I have the doors shut in order to keep Romeo indoors. It has nothing to do with Duke and his diabetes tests. But he properly recognizes the signs, and hides out.

When we got home on Thursday evening, Duke went slinking into hiding. Then, at the first opportunity, he made a break for freedom. Once outside, he stayed well away from me, fleeing under the house when necessary. It took me quite a while to (a) get him back inside, and (b) get him out from behind the bed. It took several food bribes and a lot of patience.

Then he repeated the act this morning, this time escaping through the cat door and running away when I went after him. Now I’m worried. If he doesn’t come out from hiding, he doesn’t eat. If he doesn’t eat, I can’t give his insulin injections. It’s turning into an end of the week nightmare of sorts.

Since it was raining lightly, he came and sat on the deck, and I went outside, around the house, and came up the deck stairs. Now poor Duke didn’t know what to do, and ended up shooting back through the cat door to the safety of the house. Whew.

Okay. Next, he crawled under a rattan chair in the living room. I could lift the bottom pillow up and there he was, definitely hiding. So I got a dish of canned cat food and put it under there. It was empty when I next checked. I refilled it. It was emptied again. But Duke still didn’t want to come out. When I couldn’t quite get a good angle to give the shot while he remained in hiding, we went to Plan B.

Following my instructions, Meda tilted the chair back and I scooped out all 16 pounds of Duke and set him down on a clean towel on the chair. So far, so good. He wasn’t happy about it, but he did let me brush him and, in the process, give his insulin shot.

Crisis averted, for now.

So it goes in the Kaaawa cat world.

So just click on Duke’s photo, or the link below, to enjoy the rest of this Feline Friday.

–>See all of this Feline Friday photo gallery