Since we aren’t taking a lift with all of our furniture, we’ve had to drastically scale down on our household belongings.  For just about everything, the choice is: sell, give away, or throw away.  But that doesn’t work with our cat.

What to do with him has worried me.  He’s been a great pet, put up with my babies crawling after him and pulling his tail, very low maintenance and easy going – but he’s seven years old, and though he’s in good health, most people are looking to adopt kittens.  The idea of taking him to a shelter was really disturbing to me, since I know they kill the cats if they aren’t adopted within a short time.  But I wasn’t having any luck finding him a home, and advertising cats for free is a good way to attract people who want to use them for animal experimentation or other horrible things like satanic rituals.

Last week, a twelve year old neighbor saw our cat and asked dd15 what we’re doing with him.  Dd jokingly answered, “Do you want a cat?”.  But the 12 year old girl answered, “Yes, I do!”  Her parents contacted me a few days later and the family came over to visit our cat before deciding if they’d take him.

Then we agreed to wait a couple more days before they came to get him; I know this might sound strange, but I wanted to have a chance to tell him what was happening so he wouldn’t feel like we were abandoning him.  Several years ago, upon hearing me tell her how our cat expressed his displeasure both times that we came home from a family camping trip, a friend suggested in the future we tell him we were going on a trip but that we’d come back.  After that, we never had a problem again.

Today dd10 and dd14 took him over to his new home, where he immediately began eating the food they put out for him.   Knowing he has a good home is a big weight off of my mind; taking our cat wasn’t a good option for him (he’d have to spend all day in an apartment, and is used to being outside and in a larger home), and I’m so relieved that he’ll have a home with a kind family.

Avivah