She's home...

 

We got a call around 2:00 that we could pick up Stella at 4:00 - everything went well.  We were at PetSmart when I got the call, picking out food for her and Murphy (Murphy can try being off the prescription food).  I saw this on display...

 That might have been a good purchase for that whole "cat in heat" situation.  Just kidding - no, it wouldn't.

We were at the vet's office 10 minutes before 4:00; and then waited for another half hour or so.  The vet brought Stella out and visited with us, answering our questions.   We drove home (carefully) and got Stella into the house.  I held her for a while, talking calmly to her; she was wearing the soft cone we had taken to the vet, and she wasn't a bit happy about that.

A sudden noise in the house, and Stella launched, running all around the living room.  Just what we were trying to avoid.  She pulled out of the cone.  I managed to get her by the scruff of the neck, with only two puncture wounds - to me, not her.  We put the cone back on her and put her into the crate.  The Velcro® on the cone stuck to one of the soft pads in the crate.  So much for calm.

Joan took the cone off and put on the soft donut...

 The thinking here is it isn't covering here vision like the cone.  It took her about 5 minutes to pull out of that.  Back to the cone.

Joan folded the cone back (the reason for a soft instead of a hard cone) so Stella could get to her water and food dishes.  The vet said she could eat whenever she was ready... and she was ready.  Mad and ready.

The plan for the evening: let her chill.  Food as she seems ready for it.  Doing what we can to keep her calm and not jumping around.  She and Murphy seem OK with being nose to nose through the bars of the crate, but it is a different vibe from the last few days.  Thankfully.

I expected her to be more out of it this evening.  She seemed that way for the first few minutes I was holding her, but she is now all about checking out this new "catio of sorts" (maybe looking for a way out of it?) - it doesn't have all the fun levels of the other catio.  Intentionally, to try to make it easy for her to get around in there.  

I'm hoping for a quiet evening.

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Murphy was laying outside the crate, keeping an eye...

 At one point, Murphy reached in with a paw and Stella touched her paw to his.  I thought to myself, "Oh, how sweet"... and then it turned into a slap fest.  "Come on, buddy, we're trying to keep her calm."

Stella is strong for her size.  That is not an asset for this current situation.  She is also smart - she braced her back legs on the donut and popped it right off.  We switched back to the cone (in the above photo; it lasted a little longer before she popped that off.  We are now at: pop-offs, cone - 3, donut - 2.

Back to the donut for her next small meal...

 I didn't know if the hormones would be diminished immediately with the spay.  She is caterwauling less, but still calling for Murphy.

The score is now 3 to 3.

New plan: surgical suit.  What's that?  Thanks for asking.  It is a onesie that cinches at the neck and uses Velcro® down the back to cover the incision.  Supposedly, they are able to poop and pee with it on.  Yes, Joan bought one at the same time she got the cone and the donut.

Putting it on her was a two-person job: one to hold her by the scruff of her neck and get scratched while the other slips the suit over her head and maneuvers her legs through the appropriate holes.  I did the holding while getting scratched part, while Joan "dressed" her.  She is walking awkwardly, but - so far - hasn't figured out how to pull it off or rip it to shreds.

 If you haven't figured it out, yet, in the image above she is saying something to me... and the horse I rode in on.

Joan suggested that our next purchase might need to be meat-cutting (chain mesh) gloves for me.  She also proposed that the next step will be the donut over the suit.  And then the cone over the donut over the suit.

So much for the quiet evening.