Last weekend, we heard about a 2-year-old gray tabby named Oscar, who needed a home. He was one of many emails I've received from Sheri Berliner, Chicago pet photographer and homeless animal advocate extraordinaire. She's the one who was our key to finding Tommy Cat his new home.



Oscar had been picked up by Animal Control in Skokie...after knocking at a cat-fearing woman's screen door one night. She was terrified. Great idea by the kitty though!

I've seen other wonderful cats come through my inbox, but he stood out for a few reasons.

He's a gray tabby.
It was Columbus Day weekend.

And on Columbus Day in 1989, my family adopted a gray tabby who was a much beloved member of our family. She died last year at age 18. She was an amazing cat who saw me through braces and awkward years and college years...and I got to kiss her on my wedding day. She was sweet Mrow. Her real name was Isabella Jim (maybe for a later post). But when you asked her what her name was, she always said "MRROOOW!"

Lastly, Oscar was already front-declawed. Johnny was front-declawed by choice (a poor one in my present opinion) and Katie by chance (since we rescued her). We'd been thinking about adopting another cat for a while, but we didn't think it would be fair to introduce a cat with the advantage of front claws to the household, nor did we want to declaw again.

Then we saw the email about Oscar. He's friendly, healthy and needs a home. Let's go pick him up! We isolated him in the bathroom for two hours before giving him full range. We were just so excited to know that he was known to be healthy and able to mingle. And so we got quite a bit ahead of ourselves.

Oscar was very pleased. The last few weeks (at least) had been spent lost outside, in cages and in a basement bathroom at Sheri's house. It was kind of sad to see how comfortable he was with NOT being accepted.



Do you think we have enough cat toys?

Even sadder was seeing how upset our own kitties were with the drive-by introduction.

Katie was a bit hissy and on edge, but okay, so long as he didn't think about coming near her.



Johnny turned into a hissing, growling, VERY unhappy mess who only wanted to spend time up in the "Club House" (on top of the kitchen cabinets).




He did this for a few hours before finally succombing to sleep. But he kept one ear awake.



So, under the pressure of seeing two cats that we love so unhappy and realizing that our approach was less than fair, what did we do next?

Tune in for the next post. I realize this might leave several (literally, and with a cushion) readers with questions, but more soon!

Thanks for reading! And Happy Birthday to Deb, my most pushy (in a good way!) reader!