The Great Cat Hunt - Act 1

Really. How hard can it be to find a cat? They are everywhere; people all over are advertising free cats - they are giving them away! "Please take my wonderful cat, I have to move and can't take her with me," the ads cry. "My baby is allergic to cats." or "My mother-in-law won't let me keep the cat and I have to live with her for a while because I'm unemployed." Whatever the reason, there are a lot of ads for free cats. So why is this so difficult?

I started talking about getting a cat months ago. I haven't had one in a long time and I really like them. I have one that lives in the storage building behind the house. She moved in thinking it would be a good place to raise her kittens who I see in rare glimpses as they dart across the yard. They aren't like "real" cats, they are more like wild animals. Feral cats are usually not very cuddly, loving or happy around people. But I've been feeding them nonetheless. I figure the worst that could happen is they will keep the swamp rat population down. But seeing them every once in a while just reinforced that fact that I miss having a cuddly, soft, warm cat around the house who rubs up against my leg, purrs and wants to sit in my lap and cuddle. So a couple of days ago I decided to call one or two of these ads and go get a cat.

When I was young, I remember going to get a cat. We answered an ad or a friend had a litter of kittens; I would go to the cats, pick one out and bring it home. Viola! Instant cat owner.

Not That Hard.

Heck, a few months ago, my coworker had some cats she needed to get rid of. I told her no because Ken was allergic to them and seeing what a hard time she had finding homes for them, I figured there would be a bunch of cats advertised and I could pretty much have my pick.


So I look on craigslist and see several ads. Sort through them and contact a few that seemed the most promising. Yes, I could answer an ad about free, adorable, cuddly kittens, but I figure that there are a lot of people that will take a kitten, some of the older ones deserve a chance too.

I went to the first house and was greeted by a yapping Pomeranian dog at the front window, followed by a mid-sized dog, possibly Australian Shepherd mix, at the front door, followed closely by a large rottweiler at the who growled and wagged his tail. The thought occurred to me that it must be hard to try and be fierce when that darned tail keeps giving you away.


The dogs were put away behind a pull-over gate in the kitchen and I was led inside by a man. The man said he put the cats in the laundry room so he wouldn't have to chase them down. When we arrived at the laundry room, it looked like the cats spend a lot of time in the laundry room; it was where they kept their cat tree and the room smelled like cat urine.

The man reached around behind a door into what appeared to be a closet and pulled out a medium sized grey persian cat, "Amber" -- named for the color of her eyes The cat had been shaved at one time, evidenced by the fur that was about one inch long all over it's body. The man said they like to keep her fur shaved kind of short to avoid matting. Well, it wasn't working because there was matted fur all over this cat's body with the distinct, yet almost faint, odor of urine.


Nice kitty. She wasn't impressed with me and I wasn't much impressed with her, but if I was going to take the Maine Coon cat that was still in the closet, I knew that this was going to be a package deal. We had discussed it in our emails; the two cats needed to go together since they have been companions for a long time.

The man reached back in behind the door and picked up the Maine Coon -- "Gizmo" -- and asked me if I wanted to hold him. This one had been declawed. He claimed that when he had gotten this cat, about 5 years before, the owners said that he was aggressive and kept attacking people. The man said that he had never attacked anyone at their house but the cat had shown some signs of having been abused, which might have been the reason for the aggressiveness with the old owners.


I held this beautiful cat and petted him. He sat there and tolerated it, leaning as far as possible away from my body with a look on his face that simply said, "Put me down." No aggression, no anger, just simply stating that he would put up with my feeble attempts to get him to like me, but there was no way he was going to. It just wasn't his style.

As the man and I talked, he mentioned that "Gizmo", didn't like to socialize and really only came out of hiding in the laundry room to go into hiding somewhere else in the house. Gizmo had been living with them for 5 years.

So I assessed my options here: a beautiful cat that I'll only see when I feed it (if I'm lucky) that comes with a companion who is of a breed that I don't really care for, has matted fur, smells and isn't all that friendly.  


Yeah.


I thanked the man and told him I'd have to think about it, that I hadn't had a cat in a very long time, I already had a neurotic dog and I just didn't think I could put my heart into something that would mean a lifetime of constant rejection. Not right now. I just couldn't do it.


Back to craigslist and on to cat # 2:  The "sweet, black and white kitty with the pink nose" as stated in the ad.

"Deja" was outside with a woman and her daughter when I arrived. The woman explained that she had to get rid of Deja because the boyfriend that she was moving in with is allergic to cats and she couldn't keep her. She and the daughter were both very attached to the cat and were both visibly upset that she would have to leave.


I held Deja and petted her. She wasn't extremely happy about it, but she held up like a trooper. She didn't pull away, she didn't cuddle up. She just sat there as if she knew she was leaving her family but it would be ok in the end.

I agreed to take Deja and we loaded her and all of her belongings in the van. I didn't have a cat carrier so I did the next best thing and brought a large dog crate that had been given to me when we got Bella. I locked her in the crate and she had plenty of room to move around. As we took off, Deja meowed, she meowed at the corner, she meowed as we progressed down the street. She clearly was not enjoying the car ride. She continued to voice her opinion all the way home, which is completely understandable. I've never really met a cat that liked car rides.


When I arrived home, I took all of her stuff out of the van and into the house and asked my son to help me bring the cage inside. We tried to remove Deja from the cage while it was in the van but she crouched up against the back of the crate just out of reach. We decided to bring her inside, crate and all. Once we were inside I would just open the crate and let her come out whenever she felt secure enough to.


We picked up the crate and proceeded to move it out of the van. Deja was unhappy to say the least. She hissed, growled and climbed the side of the cage in protest. Just as the crate was reaching the edge of the van, she jumped down and squeezed through one of the openings in the bottom of the cage. Who makes the bottom of a cage with LARGER openings than the top of a cage? Well, obviously this manufacturer does. Deja slipped easily through one of the openings and dashed  under the car.


NO, she was not coming out. NO, she was not falling for my pleasantries, and NO, she wasn't happy.


I crawled down onto the ground, trying to coerce the cat. Talking softly, using the time-tested "here kitty" approach, then the "want some food?" approach, then the funny clicking noises approach, "tch-tch, come on Deja" and all to no avail. She stopped hissing after a while, and the growling subsided but she was definitely not happy and definitely not going anywhere with me.


I backed off and thought that maybe if I just continue bringing the crate inside, maybe she would come out from under the van and I would be able to get her to come inside when she started to calm down. The house was 20 feet away from the van and I watched her the whole time that I was folding the the cage up. Jesse got in the van and put the seats back how they were supposed to go and I kept watching around the sides of the van to see if she came out.


We brought the cage inside and I could still see her sitting under the van. I placed the cage in the kitchen and went back out to try again. When I got out there she was gone. She wasn't under the van, not in the yard, I couldn't see her anywhere. She had bolted. In the 5 seconds or so that it took me to enter the front door and put the cage down 10 feet from it, she was gone.


I called her, I looked for her, I put food out, the sun had gone down and it was now dark now. I gave up. Maybe she would show up tomorrow. I'll keep looking out the door tonight and calling her, maybe she'll decide she doesn't like it outside and come in. Great. Now I have another stray cat to add to the other strays. She'll probably be living in the storage shed behind my house like the other ones that stare at me as I walk around the yard, but dart away if I make any movements towards them. I will add her to the list of strays; the ones that I feed but receive no love in return. {pause for 2-second "pity party"}


I imagine that she will hang around - the other ones do. I will see glimpses of her once in a while and I will say, "Oh. Deja - Vu!" ... and she will be gone again.



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