I haven’t posted here for a while, due to a little distraction:

That people who volunteer at cat shelters sometimes end up with new pets isn’t much of a surprise. But I was resisting the lure pretty well, until Jean started to waver—even though he only knew of Shawnee based on my descriptions (and a few cell phone photos).

Shawnee had been at the shelter from the first day I volunteered, but I only really noticed her some months later, after she got some extensive dental work done. This left her with no teeth whatsoever, but also, with an altered personality. Whereas previously she’d been at best aloof, at worst cranky, she became very friendly and affectionate. From my perspective, all of a sudden this little tabby cat was coming up to me for pets and face rubs.

By summer (I started volunteering in January), she was added to the shelter adoption list. (Not all the cats under this shelter’s care are considered adoptable.) Shawnee was about six years old, and had been at shelter for about two years. Previous to that, she’d been a colony cat. She was part of a TNR (trap/neuter/release) program, only they decided to not release her (despite clipping her ear). She was at the Humane Society for a while, then brought over to Pet Patrol.

I didn’t particularly need another cat, so I fairly relieved to hear, a couple months later, that she had a prospective adopter. This person took their time deciding, but finally did bring Shawnee home. It was funny to not see her at the shelter, but I was happy for her…

…until my next volunteer shift, when she was back at the shelter. Turns out she’d spent all her time at her new home hiding in a closet. After four days, she was returned.

Jean and I hemmed and hawed about it through the fall, but finally in January, we went out to see her. And brought her back home.

Though the standard advice is to let the new cat be completely on their own in a dedicated room after adoption, given Shawnee’s history of always living with lots of cats, they suggested she could meet ours after a day or two. And indeed, the meetings generally went well. Mac was a little dubious at first, and she had to make some moves to win him over. But she generally did.

Gus seemed pretty enamored of her. She wasn’t quite as sure about him, but seemed OK as long as he kept a little distance.

Shawnee was getting comfortable with us (she already knew me, which helped), seemed OK with the cats, and was starting to explore the rest of the house. It seemed as though we’d have this whole adoption thing settled in a couple of weeks.

Or not.

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