Well...I found a cat

Well, it looks like protozoa is going to win the bet, but hasn't yet. I found a cat who is a really good fit.

I was looking for a female cat who likes other cats and is shy with people. I was looking for an adult cat because I figured a bouncy, playful kitten would drive Random nuts, although they recommend introducing a kitten to an older cat for territorial reasons. And I kind of wanted an exotic looking cat, possibly a tortoiseshell or calico cat, although I wasn't going to worry about the coloring if the cat's personality fit.

There was a 6 month old female kitten there in a cage with another cat who was supposedly her friend. She was formerly a feral kitten, and is still shy with humans. She'll let you pet her, but isn't very demonstrative. She put up with her friend eating her food (some friend!) She's a very pretty kitty too, what they call a pastel tortoiseshell. She looks a little like this kitty. She slept most of the time though. One of the times that she opened her eyes, she saw me looking at her, and she put her paw over her eyes. I had to laugh.

They said that she had been active earlier, so I told them that I'd come back earlier in the day tomorrow. They're expecting me around 1.

And after thinking about it, I've decided to adopt her if things go well tomorrow. I've been proceeding as if that will be the case. I bought her a cat bed that looks like a small tent with a fleece floor. Very silly looking, but if I was a cat, I'd love it:


I brought Chaos' cat carrier out of storage and brought it home. Random had a really interesting reaction. At the adoption fair, I brought a sock with which I petted the kitty to pick up her scent. I let Random sniff the sock, and me too, to see what he would do. He didn't seem that interested. However, when I brought the cat carrier up, he was sniffing it and sniffing it, looking inside and circling it. Apparently Chaos' scent is still in there. He's been staring at it a lot, looking perplexed. And I lost it for a while, crying and telling Random that we're going to get another kitty really soon.

That pretty well settles it.

I bought some catnip-laced treats (kind of like hash brownies for cats). Random's been jumpy, looking for the ghost kitty, so I gave him some and watched how he reacted. He visibly calmed down, but didn't start bouncing off the walls, so I'll probably give him some when they're first introduced. I'll also test them on her before they're first introduced. I have no shame, pushing catnip to innocent cats-;)

They've been calling her Mia, which suits her, but isn't quite my style. Oddly enough, I thought about calling her Hope, just like the cat in the picture. I decided to call her Aurora, as in aurora borealis and the dawn. New beginnings. New life.

False alarm

I ran late this morning, but made it over to the adoption fair at around 1:30. The people working there hadn't been there the previous day. They hadn't heard anything about me. And Mia (the kitten) was crashed out cold again.

I explained the situation, but they didn't seem inclined to let her walk around (if she even would have, given that she was so zonked). Furthermore, she didn't think that Mia was a good fit given that I had another cat. She suggested that I visit their shelter, where I could see a much wider range of cats. (I asked about visiting the shelter yesterday, and the person to whom I was talking said that I could see the cats at the adoption fair.) The volunteer pointed me to another cat, whom I think would be a really bad fit because 1) her description said that she didn't like other cats very much, but probably would get along with them if properly introduced, 2) her description said that she likes to be the "Queen Bee" of the place, and I already have a "King of the Hill", and 3) she looks a lot like Chaos (my cat who died).

So, no go. I'm going to try to set up an appointment on Wednesday afternoon to visit the shelter, and make up the time. I was planning on working from home anyway. Also , I need to be in early on both Monday and Tuesday, so it should be easy to rack up some hours.

After I left, I thought about driving down to an animal shelter in San Martin (my original plans for today), but I didn't have the directions to the facility with me. I went home and got them, and when I looked their hours over, I realized that it wasn't a no-kill shelter, but a SPCA-type shelter. I decided that I didn't need that type of pressure at this point, so I just ran some errands and came home.

I plan to take a quick nap and then finish my taxes.

Addendum: I do like the fact that the people at the no-kill shelter are willing to say that a particular cat isn't a good match. I just wish that they'd get their stories in sync. I asked three times yesterday about how well Mia got along with other cats.