Branding Michelle

For the past month I have been dealing with "demon cat". My previous cat, Sheba, ended up being a major problem. I don't really know what it was, but she did not like living with Erik and me, so consequently we did not like living with her. Her unhappiness manifested in many different ways including obnoxious excessive meowing, defecation directly in FRONT of litter box every morning, refusal to be held, among many other things. I tried for weeks to change these habits and subsequently became pretty well versed on feline behavior and especially on litter boxes. I tried everything I could to make Sheba happy and she was still miserable. I became even more confused and upset when I found out that at her previous "foster home" she was fully litter trained and very affectionate. I decided the best thing to do was to return her to Feline Friends where she could find a new home and hope for a better life. I obviously couldn't give that to her.

On Saturday I returned to Feline Friends for the monthly "Open House" where Feline Friends brings all the homeless cats within their care together to have an open adoption day. My eyes teared up as I put Sheba's kennel on the table, beside all the other cats up for adoption. While I was waiting to speak to the adoption coordinator about the situation I had to turn around so I couldn't see her looking at me. She proceeded to hiss at the other cats surrounding her and when being put into a new kennel by a staff member, scratched and hissed at her as well. I felt somewhat better at that moment thinking I was justified in re-homing her, but somewhat worse. Was I the cause of her anger?

While I was trying to hold myself together, Erik set off to look for a kitten. He was convinced he wanted a kitten, while I was done with the obnoxious-hyper-defecating-behavior that kittens can often display. That is until we found Cesar sitting in his cage.

His description read, "a total lap cat"... "very clean"... doesn't make a sound"... and on and on with EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. He was really the exact opposite of Sheba. We fell in love with his demeanor and adopted him immediately, of course fighting of others who were jockeying for position to adopt him. I wasn't able to stay long to see who took Sheba home but I hope she found a home that she is content with.

Erik named him Cesar. I call him Cesar Salad. He is 10 weeks old and is very small and is very fragile. He doesn't make a sound. He tries to but we have reasoned he doesn't know how to meow yet. He makes the motions to and it is very endearing. This is common with kittens. Whenever I am on the couch he lays in my lap and sleeps until I need to move around, then returns when I am back again. At night he sleeps in between Erik and I at about knee level. I worry about one of us rolling onto him as we sleep since he can't make any noise! He has not had an accident and is very good about using his litter. In short he is the perfect cat... so far!

Caesar 2/11/08 2:20 PM