Fighting the Loneliness

Our cat Dayna has always been a bit high strung and neurotic, but she had been getting increasingly clingy and needy with her requests for attention. We finally decided that she’s probably lonely from not having other cats around (something she had for the first five years of her life). So Saturday morning, kitanzi and I went down to The Cat Clinic of Roswell to see what they had available for adoption.

We arrived at the clinic at about noon, and told them why we’d came. They were delighted to see us, and immediately had us wash our hands so we could go and pet the various cats in the adoption room while we filled out the paperwork. The questionnaire they provide to adopters is quite extensive…they are pretty serious about not just getting the cats into homes but into good homes where they will be well provided for. We ooohed and ahhed over the various cats who were sunning themselves while I filled out the forms.

Once that was done, a very nice lady came out to go over the questionnaire with us, and ask us a lot of questions about ourselves, our current cat, our home environment and so forth. As it went on, i found myself more and more wanting to ensure that I lived up to their standards. I think that this is a good thing, overall. There’s little point in putting the cat into a home that will abandon it again in 2-3 years.

We then got a tour of the back, where even more cats were prowling around waiting for someone to come and give them a good home. One of the other really nice things the clinic (who is closely partnered with Good Mews, a local no-kill cat shelter) does is actually listen to the prospective new owners wants for a pet, and then try to match them up with a cat that will suit them personality wise. In our case, one of the things we wanted to make sure is that we didn’t end up with a cat who would intimidate Dayna, who isn’t a very large cat and was at one time the smallest animal in the house. The first cat they showed us was Nell, an adorable white cat who has soft plush fur and a very sweet disposition. Nell is one of the favourites of the staff, and they really want to see her in a good home. The only possible complication was that she had come in with another cat, and she wasn’t sure if they wanted to separate them. They generally try to adopt out cats with strong pair-bonds formed together. These two cats had originally been adopted from this very shelter, and then given up when the owners moved out of state and couldn’t be bothered to look for a pet-friendly apartment. They decided however, that they would allow her to go to a home without him because he had been a bit of a bully to her, and they figured she’d be better off in a home where she wasn’t being bullied by another cat.

We looked at some other cats, and desperately wanted to take them all home, but we eventually came back around to Nell. So we said we’d take her, and everyone was excited and they told us to come back on Monday to fill out the paperwork and we could take her home. (The delay was because (a) they close at 2pm on Saturday and thus there wasn’t time to do all the paperwork and (b) they had some medical things to do with her that were scheduled before they let her go).

I drove down today at 2pm with an empty carrier, and filled out a bunch of forms and spoke at length with the staff’s animal behaviourist about helping the new cat adapt to the new surrounds, and then drove home with her. She’s spent most of the afternoon hiding (Dayna is being segregated into the other room.

Here’s a couple of pictures of Nell. (I haven’t decided yet if we want to keep that name or not. We may end up doing so out of default, though I admit I’m not especially enamoured of it for the cat):

Getting used to new surroundings:

Ah, here’s a good place to hide!

More pictures can be found on my pictures page