Homeless Cat -- Now Spotacus' Legacy
On 18 Dec, a very large cat showed up at our house. It was late and cold, and he looked in the door and made it clear he wanted inside. Well, since we have two cats already and he was a stranger, we...
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Meet Harley. Yep. Was in PetSmart picking up some cat food for Nephew's cat, and there she was in the adoption cages. Came to a screeching halt in front of her cage, because she looks so much like a cat we had for 20 years. Frightened, but still responded to me and no one else. One of only two adult cats in there, and the oldest at four years.
Seems she had lived her whole life in a small home with one person, then "person" gave her up, claiming she was moving and couldn't take Harley along. The shelter folks didn't buy the story; it must have been pretty poor. At least "person" did tell them the cat's name is Harley.
So even though our luck with female cats isn’t the best, I wasn’t about to leave her in that cacophony. She called me nasty names when I reached in to pick her up, fought like mad to not get stuffed into the carrier, then really called me names out to the pickup. Quiet on the ride home, called me names as I carried her into the house, then totally quiet until yesterday, when she started meeping at us. Holding off on taking her to our vet for a chip until she’s more comfortable with being here, but before we head out on an RV trip in a couple weeks. Clearly, she never went anywhere except to the vet, then being tossed out, so carriers are baaaad.
Spousal Unit slept in that bedroom last night. Harley slept on the bed with him, and each time he woke up, gave him some serious head bumps. She's coming along nicely in getting used to new people.
Czarny has been vaguely aware that she's in the house, but hasn't seen her until just a few minutes ago. We let them both growl and hiss at each other for a few minutes, then took Czarny out of the room. We'll keep doing this several times a day until they both calm down. Appears neither is an alpha cat and we don't want either to become one.
We have the big cage already in the RV, so if Harley feels safer in it, she can ride there. Czarny prefers under the bedcovers. No idea how either will react to almost a week in the RV, but we're not about to slap either one in a kennel. Last thing Harley needs is to come home with us, then back into a kennel three weeks later. Nope, we'll just deal with both cats in the RV and possibly still in the get acquainted phase.
Life around here is pretty spicy right now.
