It was all made worse by knowing that we'd have to do it again, two weeks later.
This time, I resolved to try less painful methods. She didn't really go for cream cheese, and I'd never tried her on butter. She does like tuna, but I couldn't really figure out how to wrap the flaky tuna around the pill in an effective way. I bought some smoked mackerel with the idea of wrapping the skin around the pill, but I had my doubts. I also bought some plain old canned cat food from Trader Joe's. If nothing else, she could have a treat after the ordeal (this is how I bribed her into talking to us after the last episode).
This morning, I opened the can of cat food to see what she thought of it. Much purring and rubbing of legs ensued, so I figured it was worth a shot. I took a bit of the food, stuck the pill in the middle, wrapped it to be sure it was well-hidden, and put the dab of food in her bowl. Lick lick, food and pill were gone! Could it be so easy? I did it again with the second portion. It worked again!
I'm greatly relieved. Further, I can't believe we all had to go through that horrid ordeal the other week when we could have made it easy and let her think she was getting a treat at the same time.
Humans can be really slow sometimes, huh?