Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

I have no pics of him yet, but the cat on the right looks a lot like Luke.

For a few weeks now, I've been driving around with cat stuff in my trunk that we had bought when we thought we were adopting a kitten from Mom.

This week, we finally got a chance for another try at a kitty. We went to something called a Kitty Extravaganza at a local Petco, sponsored by a local non-kill pet shelter. They were introducing people to a variety of young cats and adult cats who needed homes.

We looked first at a kitty named Sophie, a white kitty with blue eyes. She needs a lot of care at this point. Due to an eye infection when she was a kitten, she has to have artificial tears put in her eyes three times a day. The vet might be reducing the frequency soon, however.

That wasn't the reason I thought she might not be the best match for us. She was really squirmy when both The Gryphon and I tried to hold her. The foster mother told us that she might be upset because of all the noise. I agree that's possible, but we weren't entirely certain.

Then we met Luke. He's a white and orange kitty, mostly white with orange on his ears and tail. He is a real sweetheart. Luke comes from a litter that was orphaned in a warehouse and all of them have some health issues. In his case, he appears to have some sort of allergies which had caused, by turns, some fur to fall out and some swelling of his lips.

The foster mother has been giving him a wheat-free nonallergenic food, and he seems to be getting better. She recommended that it might be a good idea to at least temporarily continue with his current vet, who's familiar with his health history.

Luke was very calm. It didn't matter if it was me or The Gryphon who held him, he seemed comfortable. He especially seemed happy in The Gryphon's arms, which doesn't surprise me, as he's a very gentle person.

We had decided before we got there to look for a light colored kitty, primarily because we have a light colored dog and actually took pains to buy a rug, couch cover, et cetera that would show the least amount of fur.

The Gryphon mentioned this in passing to Luke's foster mom. I cringed inwardly and then said aloud, "I hope you don't think that's terribly shallow." She said not at all, that some people only want certain kinds of cats.

Once we had met and befriended Luke, we had to find out about the next step. This was to fill out an application form for your preferred kitty. This started with basic contact information and then about things like your other pets and what sort of health they're in, your vet's phone number, your landlord's phone number.

Then there were more specific questions about how you would raise the cat: whether it would be indoors or outdoors (Luke would be indoors); whether the cat would be declawed (no); whether your existing pet is spayed or neutered (she is); how many hours a day he'd be left along (very few, since I'm a telecommuter). They asked if someone would be home for 24 hours when we first brought the kitty home, and I said yes.

Next came questions about how the cat would be treated. They asked what we'd do about a pet scratching furniture, and I said we'd encourage it to use a scratching post and would use a spray bottle to spray a water mist at him if he was doing something bad.

They asked how we would introduce the kitty to our existing pet, and I said they would not be unsupervised until they're used to each other. When we leave the house, we'll put Luke in a separate room with all possible kitty comforts.

When I was done, I handed the form in and asked what the next step would be. They said that the adoption coordinator would look it over and get back to us in a few days. After that we could arrange to come visit Luke again.

We hung around a little longer to pet Luke some more before heading out, and I shook hands with the adoption coordinator on our way out the door.

Out in the car, I started going over everything in my head. I felt like I'd just been through a job interview. Reviewing my answers, though, I figured they were all pretty good. When I mentioned it later before the Confed session that night, our friend The Cheshire Cat asked, "Well, did you answer everything truthfully?"

"Of course," I said.

"Then you put the right answers down."

That made me feel a little better. After all, if they were looking for somebody vastly different than me, there was nothing I could do about it.

We didn't hear anything Sunday or Monday, but Tuesday I got a call from Luke's foster mom, who asked me if I'd heard from the adoption coordinator. I told her no. She said that we'd been approved. She said the landlord had confirmed we had permission for a kitty, and my answers demonstrated that we'd put some thought into how to raise a cat and were aware of the responsibilities.

She wanted to set up a time to see Luke again. That's the difficult part. This coming weekend, we'll be unavailable on Saturday and she's booked up on Sunday. We might get to see him in the morning next week if The Gryphon goes into work early. She's supposed to call me back soon to arrange something.

I'm really looking forward to welcoming Luke. He seems like a really mellow little guy. His foster mom says he gets along well with other cats, so I'm almost certain he'll adjust well to Una. Plus, she's been around a lot of cats and knows to be gentle and cautious around them.

In fact, Una loves cats and I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have a new friend. I tried to tell her about it, and when I said the word, "Kitty," her ears perked up. She looked around, trying to spot the kitty. She'll understand soon enough.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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