The Waiting Game

The worst thing about this now is the waiting. Before we can arrange to bring our cat home we have to pass a home inspection to make sure we are safe. We need to put our house in order. It’s like preparing to welcome a small child. Put the chemicals away, tidy away loose wires. So many things we need to sort out. We have started to think about the first few days. The internet is full of useful cat friendly advice.

• Cats are territorial, and coming into a new home leaves them feeling really uneasy. Thinking of it from their viewpoint there is all that new unexplored space, and if you think there may be monsters under the bed imagine what the poor putty tat thinks may lurk there. We have to provide a small area to call her own for the first few days. There is a spare bathroom but its a bit small or the dining room which would be comfy for us as well.
• We want to sort out all the basic cat amenities, such as food, water and a litter box – I can feel a shopping trip coming on but we need to know from the shelter exactly what she likes to eat. No one wants to go to a home only to find they hate the food. Lunch to go is a must with food and water bowls. (Cats are just as picky as human beings so it needs to be far enough away from the litter box not to spoil her appetite).
• The litter box again needs to be the same familiar brand so it smells the same and placed in her room where she can use it undisturbed. After all, no one peers at me on the loo, and it will give her confidence that will help with litter box anxiety.
• Cats love to get away from it all in small places, and we are going to provide one for our new cat as her own little safe haven. And an additional bonus – all those lovely goodies will come in a cardboard box . A cardboard box is cat heaven . We are also going to buy a covered cat bed. Perfect for a small nervous kitty.
• Cat etiquette requires that she can see the door to the room from her hidey hole, so she won’t be startled by any member of the family making an unexpected entrance to say hello.
• A cat’s claws need to be worn down, and they do this by scratching on things. We will buy her a scratching post to save our sofa.
• Making it smell like home. We can encourage our cat to use the post by sprinkling it with catnip
• We need to look at our house with a cat’s eye for climbing and exploring. Its time to take things off top of the kitchen cabinets and shelves just in case, and make sure there’s nothing on display that could be knocked off.

I also need to do something constructive while we wait. Just as well there is a lot of shopping required.

Little Black Cat – looking for a home

Millie. Waiting expectantly in a rather chilly cage at Cuckfield Cattery. We actually went to look at Murray(thankfully Murray has also found a home).  Millie had found life in her previous home rather stressful. She had a flea allergy which left her with her fur falling out, and need regular shots and a special diet. Because of that she was often overlooked and was finding life in the cattery rather stressful. Such a little sweetheart. We felt we could do something about that. After a finger-numbing January visit to the cattery and a lovely visit with Liz to meet each of the inhabitants we talked over merits of all those we had seen. The contenders

• Murray was a large ginger tom, very friendly if you offered him food but a bit confused between food and fingers.
• Tiggy a younger ginger tom, also very friendly and lovely stripy head markings
• Two inseparable black and white brothers
• and then there was Millie

Murray and the brothers were ruled out, someone else was interested in Murray, and we didn’t want two cats. That left us with the difficult choice between Millie and Tiggy. Tiggy was younger and more lively. Millie was a gentle cat Along the journey up the A23 we debated. The final decision turned out to be fairly simple. Maggie had lost her heart to a little black cat and would be heart broken if we didn’t bring her home. I vowed to promote Tiggy to my friends and sent an email to Sue at the charity offering Millie a home. Less than a day later we had an email back to arrange a home visit and the relief of seeing ‘reserved’ added to Millie’s page.

A ‘reserved’ cat

Now we had to wait for a home visit to check it was safe for Millie to come home with us.