So glad this has a happy ending, have you finished the bottle of red yet, you will have needed it! 
We had a cat who lost the use of one leg, couldn't walk, we were desperately worried about her and loaded her into the car (no cat carriers then) to take her to the vet. Two miles down the road she panicked and started jumping around from the back to the front with no problem at all. Get her to the vets, nothing wrong, back home and into the house and all of a sudden she has this massive limp, obviously decided she liked all the fuss and attention it got her!
Changing from a Manual car to an Automatic after driving manual for around 50 yrs






