From 14 To 13

[Fierce Critter]

Mama went to a new home Saturday. Thanks to Mallochai and her very, very cool Mom.

If you're not familiar with the situation, Mama was a cat I took in not too long before moving from North Carolina back here to Michigan. I had her, and 2 of her kittens. Mama had always been taken in with the understanding that I would be finding her a new home.

But a new home never developed. And Mama developed some bad habits. She was never liked by any of our other cats, and didn't care for their company, either. If she'd try to use the litterboxes, another cat would inevitably attack her. So she just stopped using them. Things got pretty bad, as you can imagine.

This also caused territorial behavior in some of the more dominant cats in the house. A couple of them started their own territorial pissings in response. So things were pretty miserable around here.

But I've always been convinced that if placed in a home without other cats, she would be just fine. I just couldn't find anyone willing to take that risk.

Until I placed an ad here, and Mallochai saw it and responded that her mother was in the market for a cat. I talked to Mallochai's Mom and she said she did have two cats, but that one was up there in age and she didn't want to be left with just one cat eventually. She had a spare room available in which to place Mama by herself until she could get comfortable with using a litterbox again, and was up to the challenge of a cat like Mama.

So Saturday, I took Mama out there. We took her to the spare room right away, which M's Mom had prepared with a big litterbox, food, and water. Immediately upon taking her out of her carrier, M's Mom put Mama right into the litterbox. Mama stepped out, and began investigating the room. Walked around, sniffed this, sniffed that, licked some water, sniffed her food. Then she went back to the litterbox...

...and got in, and peed. No coaxing, no forcing. No fear. Just as I'd suspected, she just needed to not have to worry about being attacked by more dominant cats.

It looks like things are going to work out just great. I don't think Mama will have a problem fitting in with M's Mom's other cats eventually. One of them is a younger cat who's very playful and inviting, so she won't be any threat to Mama (she also happens to look a teensy bit like one of Mama's daughters, who she did get along with). And the older cat likes to stick to himself, so he probably won't be a problem either.

So, we're down from 14 to 13 cats now. And I've begun serious work on taking care of the damaged carpeting left behind. I hope to get this place in decent shape and start having some people over.

Thank you so much, Mallochai. I owe you one!

[HipsterDufus]

Rawk. It always makes me happy to hear of another animal finding its "forever home."

[mallochai]

Hooray!

Glad to be of service. I'm sure by the time I come to visit in May, she'll be right at home.

My mom can really use the extra mouser right now too, what with winter forcing all the rodents into the haystacks.