And then there were five....

[teigyr]

DH and I go for a walk almost every night. Last night, we stopped by the local PetSmart during our travels. We have four cats, all of them female. Since my male cat had to be put down last year, the females tend to be (pardon the pun) catty. He was always a very calming influence to them.

Last night we looked at the rescue cats. We always do, we never have any intention of adopting. Cats find us, we don't find them. Then we saw him. This cat, who is at least 25 lbs, had burned whiskers and a shaved part on his torso. He was calm and didn't mind other cats in his cage. The minute he saw DH, he stood up and came to him. It was love at first sight for both of them I think :)

We stepped outside to discuss it. The cat stared at DH until he came back in. DH will go pick up the cat today.

This is Albert -

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh, how wonderful!!!!! :p :p :p :p :p :p

[SouthernBelle]

That's a cute story with a happy ending.

[Popoki_Nui]

What a handsome boy! THANK YOU for adopting him. I wish there were more people on this planet with your compassion.

Purrs,
Sherry.

[indysteel]

He's a handsome boy. Congrats to all of you and I second the thanks for giving him a good home. I have three myself and can't imagine life w/o them.

[makbike]

Congratulations! Albert is one very lucky cat. Enjoy your new buddy and may you have many,many years together.

P.S. He looks a lot like my "Chip"

[ShubieGA]

A handsome boy! He could be related to my Gracie. Good for you!

[Tri Girl]

Ohhhhhh...he's so cute!! :D Makes you want to reach out and just cuddle with him. What a cutie!!!
I know what you mean- every time we've gone to "just look" at the pets up for adoption- we wind up bringing one home. We have 4 dogs- all rescues. If I had another acre and and bottomless checkbook (for the yearly vet bills- they're outrageous!:eek: ) I'd adopt 20 more.

Enjoy life with Albert!!

[mimitabby]

ah, how nice! i wish i had the courage to bring home another boy cat!
let us know how it goes!

[Veronica]

He's a pretty boy. :)

V.

[teigyr]

Thank you :D

I hope a boy will calm the rest down but that isn't why we adopted him - there was just something about him.

I like older cats, they estimated his age at around 6. I don't understand why people abandon pets, I just don't get it.

Our cats don't go out but we have a large house so there is a lot of room to run around. We have climbing things and stairs and many rooms so they can spread out. We also put up birdfeeders right outside one of the windows for their viewing enjoyment.

The odd thing was after we lost two cats last year, DH said "that's ok. Three is a perfect number.". We then took in the neighborhood stray because he said "four is only one more and we can't stay here and watch her with snow on her back in the winter". Four became the perfect number until yesterday.

I feel the same way as Tri Girl. If I had the space and money, I would try to do far more.

He IS a pretty boy :) The picture doesn't show it so much but he has a very round face, he almost looks like a Cheshire Cat. That's his shelter picture so I'm sure there will be plenty more when he gets home.

[mountainchick]

Aww! Yay!! I want more but we can't have more than 2 in government housing...if I had my way we'd have more too.

Glad you could help a kitty out!

[lauraelmore1033]

aww, he looks like he bears a family resemblance to my "Mamma Bear", who is very round and has the biggest, most beautiful eyes you have ever seen. You're giving me ideas; a boy will calm down the cattyness of three girls??? Hmmmm...

[HeatherErin]

Aw - I'm sure you'll give the big boy a good home. :D

[short cut sally]

What a sweet story and what a handsome boy you are getting. He will love you forever. Enjoy!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Make sure you tell us about his first few days at home. :p

[teigyr]

Make sure you tell us about his first few days at home. :p

Will do :D

He is home but I am still at work. According to DH, Albert is on his back for tummy rubs and is purring like a harley. He is a BIG boy. He was weighed in the carrier - keep in mind the carrier is very large but isn't all THAT heavy - and the total weight was 32.8 :eek: Honestly, he was difficult to pick up when I was with him last night.

DH says it is very evident he was a house cat.

It makes me so sad that there are pets that don't have what we take for granted.

I got sent a picture with him on his back but it's poor quality. I will do another one maybe tomorrow but it really shows just how huge he is!

[dellafalls]

He is one handsome boy. Your girls will love him. thank you for your kindness.

[Running Mommy]

aawwhhhh He looks like my moms cat Georgie boy who is now at the bridge. He lived to be a VERY old kitty... In fact I joked that he was the prehistoric kitty. He used to limp around the house, but he was a love ball and would do his best to run down the hall to us whenever we came to visit! I love itter kitters, I just need to convince my husband that we need one!! :o

Enjoy him!

[Zen]

That's a big cat. He almost weighs as much as my dog :eek:
Good for you.
Good for Albert and his amazing hypnotic powers.
I don't dare walk into the animal shelter.

[DarcyInOregon]

You will love that cat. I think it is awesome that you adopted him.

I shop at Petsmart a lot too. I always make a beeline to see the kitty cats before I even start my shopping. I love the big fat cats the best, and Petsmart always has a few big fat cats, which I assumed got in there when their owner had to go into a nursing home, or died unexpectedly.

Ironically, none of my current lovable kitties are big and fat. I am like you, the cats arrive and so I never have to go and get one. If they reach my front porch, and stay, then I scoop them up, take them to the vet for all of the "fixins" and they become part of my household.

My favorite news story from the last 12 months was the big fat cat who got stuck in someone's pet door as he was going in to eat up all of her cat's kibble. She took the big fat kitty to the humane society and the owner had been looking for him forever. So it was a happy ending.

Darcy

[Laterider21958]

It's great that you have given Albert a perfect home. He has certainly landed on his feet!!

I too have the knack of "collecting" cats. Down to 3 at the moment. All of which have adopted me. The two boys (desexed) seem to have a bit of argy bargy going on. The younger one (which I found as a kitten, dodging cars in a dark carpark during the rain) has been trying to dominate the elder cat (of unknown origin found in my front garden 4 christmas's ago). Now the older gentle boy is reacting in a more forceful manner than has happened in the past. My nervous, gentle female cat (had lived under a bush for 3 weeks before trusting me enough to pat her) came with a tatoo in her ear, indicating that she was desexed. (That was a bonus!) No idea how old she is. She is very nervous of male people and will run away if new people come to the house. At night she shares the bed. The female is friends with the older boy, but the younger one is intent on stalking her.

We lost a 4th cat about a year ago. He wandered up our drive at about 11 p.m. one night and stayed. I am certain that there is a sign (visible only to cats) which advertises free food, comfortable living quarters and lots of pampering!!!

P.S. When the 4th cat arrived DH didn't say anything - think he has accepted my weakness!:D

[IFjane]

Albert is one lucky boy! Congratulations on your new "baby"! We, too, have 4 cats - all inside and all neutered. My 27 year old daughter is staying with us temporarily and just Tuesday adopted a kitten who had taken up residence outside our house. She is adorable and is (also temporarily) living in our downstairs bedroom. So now we also have five. :D

[smilingcat]

What a puurrrty boy and thank you for adopting from a rescue group. I work with a rescue group and currently fostering two kittens. It's soo much fun.

We also have five cats of our own and two dogs. and two temporary foster kittens. Next week, the kittens will be getting their second set of vaccination, two weeks after that, they will be spayed and neutered and week after that their last vaccination, and then up for adoption. I always cry and I always hate to see them go but they need their own family and home.

Thank you again for adopting, he is just gorgeous!!
Smilingcat

[smilingcat]

Hi Dacy,

Isn't it amazing lost cats/stray cats know which house are cat friendly and they always go to that house. 22 years ago on a stormy winter day (pouring cold rain in so calif), a raggedy poor tom cat soaked and shivering came up the stairs to my apt entrance and meowed and meowed until I heard him. OMG that poor thing was such bad shape and malnourished. I brought him in, dried him, gave him water and food which he devoured. Poor boy was so sick I rushed him to one vet who told me not to waste on a tom cat. So I took him to the best animal hospital in the area where he stayed for a week. Anti-biotics fluids ... And he pulled through. He was my best friend (better than my ex) until 7 years ago when he passed away. I miss him alot too. Mr Cat was his name. Sylvester, Sylsie was his other names. Thinking about him brings tears to my eyes.

Shawn

[Ninabike]

All you cat ladies, cats seem to find a way to our house too. Twenty years ago, my DH stopped by the pet shop to get goodies for our other kitties. Two teenage girls ran into the store with a black and white kitten and dumped her on the counter and said "our mom won't let us keep her". The girls ran out and got into a jeep and took off. The pet store owner was beside herself and said she didn't know what to do. The store was closing for the evening. The cat was in terrible shape and my husband agreed to take her to the vet. In the mean time, there was another customer in the store who said she would take her if we couldn't keep her and gave my husband her name. We guessed the kitten to about 15 weeks old.

My husband drove home with the kittie sitting on his dashboard. In the mean time, I got home from work and we decided she needed to be seen by an emergency vet right away. So off we went to the "all night" vet, where our kittie stayed for 5 days!! Needless to say, when it came time to decide if she was to be "ours" versus the other lady in the store, we decided she was ours.

Our "Sissy" ("sister" to our other cats) has since gone to the "bridge" at the estimated age ot 15 I (She died suddenly of what the vet thought was a ruptured heart valve).

Since that time, the same pet store started having pet adoptions and that is where we adopted our two little sisters (previously owned by a lady who went to a nursing home). One of our girls looks just like teigyr's Albert - just a smaller version. It is amazing how different each cat can be. Our girls are littermates; raised in the same environment, etc, but are so different from each other. One is shy; the other isn't, the shy one likes toys and does back-flips when playing with them. She is the dominat one of the two (all black kittie). The other one doesn't go for toys too much but loves people and other cats. They won't even eat the same food!!

(Sorry for the long post/hijack. Just had to tell the story.)

P.S., I think Albert must weigh more than teigyr's bike!!

[teigyr]

:eek:

Ok, yes. Albert does weigh more than my bike! Oh my.

Last night he was in heaven. I got home to find him flopped on his back with DH rubbing his tummy. Every time we'd leave the room though, he'd burrow himself into a small space. We were amazed he could fit in some of the places he went. He also jumped up into shelves. DH made him a "house" that is a long box on its side. The side facing the door is not open but has a spot that he can peek through. There's a kitty bed inside and it's not so tight that he's uncomfortable but it's snug enough for him to feel secure. It's perfect because he can see who comes through the door.

This morning, I was brushing him and he got overly animated and jerked his head toward me. He did it in the process of brushing so I smacked him a bit on the head by accident. He quickly ran into his box and hasn't come out again. It wasn't hard but I bet he had been abused at some point. I sat with him for as long as I could and I made sure he was purring before I left. I think he's tired and it is a new experience. Oh, he heard the next door neighbor call his dog and Albert started growling. He didn't seem skittish yesterday but he is today. I don't blame him though.

We learned he had been through two animal shelters before running out of time. He was then picked up by the rescue group.

We well know the "cat arriving on the doorstep" drill :) I had a pound cat who left us last year. He was 22-23, nobody really knows but he was very old. I had a abused cat (she had been kicked around as a kitten) until last year also. We have a cat that showed up on someone's porch as a kitten, a stray where I used to work (ex-DH has her offspring), a stray that had been feral - she has a clipped ear to show she was spayed, and another local neighborhood stray. ex-DH also took the one we found while going out to dinner years ago. We didn't go to dinner, instead we took her to the emergency vet and got her fixed up.

I am not sure how long to wait until integrating Albert into the cat population. Does anyone have any ideas? Alix, our latest stray (before him) is frustrated because she loved the room he is in. I have always been bad about cat integration but when Alix came, I think we did it the wrong way because she really terrorizes the others.

Anyway, here he was as of last night! Sorry about the poor quality of the cell phone picture.

And as always, it always makes me happy to read what you all write. I get frustrated wondering where all the good people of the world are then I see them all right here :D

[Ninabike]

What I have always heard about integrating cats, is that cats are more tuned into smells than visual things. If you take a towel and rub it on Albert, and then put that towel with your other cats, they will get familiar with his scent before you introduce him. Albert has no doubt picked up the scent of your other cats already so the towel trick probably won't make a difference with him He will just need to stay in his "hiding place" till he is ready to come out.

[rij73]

Oh, that's so sweet. Congrats on the new addition, and congrats to Albert for finding such a great home. I adopted my dog who had a rough start in life. Feels good, doesn't it? There is a really special bond, when you get a pet that way, I think.

[surgtech1956]

He is very handsome. Thank you for adopting. We have 7 cats now(lost one in April) and 2 dogs. We are like you - cats find us.

[solobiker]

YEAH!!! A new addition to the famliy.

[tygab]

We have resisted the urge to add another kitty to our two awesome furries... it's stories like this that make me think it's ok (I don't want to become one of those "crazy cat ladies") to provide a home to other kitties... since we are buying a long term, big, stay there forever kinda home and will move in August, we I think may be able to make room for a new one. I hope so... we will have lots of other animals (:D ) so why not another cat?

[smilingcat]

three kitties is a long long way from being labeld crazy cat lady.

Just in the cat rescue group I work with:

One gal has 12 cats plus upwards of 6 or so fosters.
another has around 20 cats plus fosters
...
and many of us have five or more cats plus fosters. me included we have 5 cats, 2 dawgs, and 2 foster kittens at the moment.

Smilingcat

[indysteel]

three kitties is a long long way from being labeld crazy cat lady.

I have three cats and my friends jokingly call me the Crazy Cat Lady. During a particularly bad blind date a few years ago, the guy told me that I was destined to be single forever once I had more than cat!


Jerk.

[teigyr]

I have three cats and my friends jokingly call me the Crazy Cat Lady. During a particularly bad blind date a few years ago, the guy told me that I was destined to be single forever once I had more than cat!


Jerk.

Yup, I went through it when I was single. I had one guy backhand my older blind cat off my sofa! I kicked him out of the house immediately. The cats were there first and I was/am proud of my crazy cat lady mentality.

[makbike]

I guess I fit into the Crazy Cat Lady club given I had 8 cats. All are rescues and all are loved.

Albert is adorable - what a lover! Enjoy your new addition.

[teigyr]

Thanks Mak :)

He hid yesterday but came out later that evening. He's still in the spare bedroom. This morning I woke up early and brought him fresh catnip. He started chirping and flopping against me. I then brought him a toy mouse and I thought he was going to go crazy!

I learned last night that he had been in shelters at least a year. Poor guy, it must feel good to not be in a cage.

When I left this morning, he walked to the door with me and wanted to go out. Out means in the rest of the house and we're not ready for that yet but I felt good that he is feeling safer.

[Python]

He's a very handsome cat:D He's certainly a big lad. He looks like a proper lap cat once he settles in.

I've always had a lot of cats. At the moment I have 10 but sadly one of my cats is very ill (a chronic infection which isn't clearing up) at the moment and we don't know if she's going to survive. Our vet suspects she has FeLV and/or FIV:( If she has (and I suspect she has) then I've taken the decision to have her PTS next week if there is no improvement in her condition over the weekend. The one thing I don't want is her to suffer. Up until this week she was a very active cat, always bringing me little presents of mice. She'd be very unhappy if she couldn't go out hunting. She's almost 11 years old, not young but not old either.

For some reason, over the past 25 years, I've always had 11 cats. My son calls it "The Curse of 11". We lost one of our cats last year - a gorgeous semi-long haired black cat. He is microchipped so we think someone stole him. One of my colleagues is looking to us to take two of his cat's kittens. They're too young to leave Mumpuss yet and won't be ready for several weeks and not being homed till they've had their vaccinations, so if we have to have Topsy PTS (we hope not...but...in my heart of hearts I know we may have to) the two kittens would make 11 again.

I too have several rescues - my oldest is somewhere between 16 and 20. She's badly crippled (house-cat only) as a result of terrible cruelty by the previous owners:mad: She's truly an amazing little cat who, despite what she suffered, is the most loving little cat you could ever wish to meet.

You are a wonderful person for giving Albert such a loving new home. The world needs more kind and caring people like you.