Tommy, Part III

A woman emailed me last Saturday about Tommy. Her friend had received Sheri's petraits email about Tommy, printed it out and brought it to a lunch they had planned. Her email came at a time when the "adopttommy" inbox had received no activity for days and the hope for finding him a home was at an all-time low. His testing positive greatly narrowed the field for him in terms of being adopted in a world of many homeless non-special needs cats. But this one was my responsibility. It's a terrible catch-22 that the no-kill shelters that would normally be his last hope cannot take him because of this positive status. I am really not trying to be dramatic here, but the situation was grim. And what we were having to contemplate for Tommy would be extremely traumatic to me. Anyone who wouldn't feel this way....well, I don't know why you're reading this blog right now. Shouldn't you be out hunting?

I had been forced into the "what now" phase I so dreaded. Clearly, it was not a long-term solution for anyone involved for him to remain living in our bathroom. Though I will say that both cat and humans involved adapted surprisingly well to the situation. Shout out to former crappy onwner from Tommy: being fed and loved, albeit in a bathroom, is much preferred to living with you. Who would argue?

Back to the prospective home for Tommy! Multiple positive emails went back and forth through Sunday with mentions of coming to meet Tommy on Monday. Things were going swimmingly, until I received an email containing the following:

"One last question raised by cat owners I'm asking--do you see any signs that he likes to "spray"? That's one habit I just can't handle..."

My impulse was to respond "Nope. No signs at all, everything's great!" This was quickly taken over by my conscience. She deserved to know that he had sprayed a few times, because if this was a deal breaker, which it sounded like it was, it would be better to address it now than later. My reply (next blog) was one of the most well thought-out emails I've ever written. I considered every word as though someone's life was on the line. Unfortunately, this was really the case. Talk about pressure.