Caterwaul!!!!!!

dictionary.com defines "caterwaul" as:

verb (used without object)

1. to utter long wailing cries, as cats in rutting time.

2. to utter a similar sound; howl or screech.

3. to quarrel like cats.

noun, Also, caterwauling

4. the cry of a cat in rutting time.

5. any similar sound.

  

I think the word was invented to describe this little miscreant:

Miss Duchess Cat, age 4. 

Duchess, as you will recall, found her forever home with Drew when she was just a few months old.  She is very much an indoor cat, having left the confines of Drew's house only on the occasion of her annual "well cat" visit with the veterinarian.

Drew told me that bringing Duchess to the vet was a very noisy activity, that she'd being to wail the moment she was forced into the cat carrier, that the volume would increase as the cat carrier was carried out of the house, and that it would reach a crescendo when the cat carrier was placed into his car.  He told me that once they arrived at the vet, Duchess would rather brave the attentions of the very large dogs in the waiting room than sit in the cat carrier.  That she was very cooperative when the vet examined her, but that the yowling would renew when it was time to get back into the cat carrier to go home.

Not that I doubted Drew's truthfulness, but ...Duchess?  Really?  She seldom meows, and when she does, it's at a soft, ladylike volume.    She is, after all, royalty. 

So he said to me:  "this year I'll make the appointment on a Saturday, so you can come with us and see (and hear) for yourself."

As I write this, we just got back from the vet.

Duchess was very cooperative during the exam, despite the assaults on her dignity as she was poked and prodded, weighed, and had her temperature taken.  She endured two vaccinations without a whimper.  She is a young and healthy cat.

With very strong vocal cords.

See, or rather, listen, for yourself: