January 2011 - Louie the Stray Cat
In December 2010, my next door neighbor, Cindy, first mentioned to me seeing a black and white cat frequenting our back patios. She had tried approaching it but it ran off whenever she moved near it. I told her that it would probably require a humane trap to catch the cat. Then a few weeks later, in January 2011, another neighbor had mentioned seeing a stray cat. So, I went to the director of A.D.O.P.T. and asked if he had a trap I could borrow. I then picked up some cans of sardines at the local grocery store. I set the trap with my fishy bait and a couple of days later, had me a very frightened black and white cat. It was bouncing off the walls of the trap and obviously not very happy.
Since there was no knowing whether this cat was feral or just a frightened stray, the first order of business was to see about getting the cat scanned and given a health check. I told the shelter that I would be willing to foot the bill for the spay/neuter surgery if it turned out the cat had no owner. I would also foster it until such time as we could determine if it was feral or an adoptable house cat. If it was feral, I planned on simply releasing it back outside. I was hoping that the cat was really a house cat in disguise and that with a little coaxing, would settle down into a cat that could be put up for adoption.
I emailed the shelter's vet tech about bringing in the cat, but didn't get a response from her until after I left for work. I had left the cat, still in the trap, with food and water in my "foster room". Cindy offered to take the cat to the shelter for me and even volunteered to pay for any shots it might need.
After she dropped the caged cat at the shelter, the vet decided the safest thing to do was to anesthetize the cat before trying to remove it from the trap. Once sedated, they took the cat out and scanned it for a microchip. Lo and behold it had one! So, they called AVID to find out who the chip was registered to. Even more astonishing was the fact that the chip was registered to A.D.O.P.T.! They looked the chip up in their database and found out that the cat's name was Louie and he'd been adopted out two years earlier as a kitten.
The vet tech called the adopter on record and at first the woman denied owning a cat. When the vet tech reminded the woman that A.D.O.P.T. had the record of the cat's adoption along with the woman's signature on the adoption papers, suddenly she remembered that she had a cat but had "given him away" a year earlier. Yeah, right. When pressed for the name of the person she'd given the cat to, the woman said she'd have to find the name and get back to us. Yeah, right.
Well, since it turned out Louie was already an A.D.O.P.T. cat, that meant he was placed back into the shelter's care. He was too upset to be released with the other cats yet and he still needed to have a clean fecal exam so I took him home with me after work. I set him up in the foster room with fresh litter, food and water and let him explore the room on his own.
The next morning, I came in with some canned food. He was sitting on the bench in front of the window, absolutely terrified. He was so frightened, he peed right where he was sitting. However, he didn't move away. He simple tried to make himself as small as possible. I gradually approached him and offered up the sardines I knew he liked. He wolfed them down in next to no time. I continued talking to him in a soft, gentle voice and reaching one finger out for him to sniff and get my scent. Eventually I was able to touch him and then to pet him. All in all, it took about half an hour of this kind of slow introduction before he realized that he was safe and in a good place.
Once he realized he'd landed in heaven, his personality completely changed. He became the consummate lap cat. He was über affectionate and starved for attention. I had difficulty getting pictures of him because he never wanted to be far enough away to get a good shot. He only stayed with me for a week. It took quite a few months before he got adopted because once at the shelter, he tended to be standoff-ish around potential adopters, preferring the company of other cats. He made good friends with Jamie and Casey, two painfully shy cats (who my neighbor, Cindy, eventually adopted). Several times I saw him at the shelter curled up with one of them on top of the bank of cages in the main community room.
We did eventually learn what happened to Louie that he ended up outside on my back porch. Turns out that Louie, along with another kitten named Lola, were adopted out to a family with a young son. When he went off to college, the mom dumped both cats in the forest preserve. We never found out what happened to Lola. That just breaks my heart. I hope for the best but fear the worst for her. The forest preserve where they were dumped is across a busy four lane highway from where I live. Louie made quite a trek to end up on my back porch.
We found out about how he ended up outside when the son came to the shelter wanting to adopt Louie again. He came in on a Saturday and immediately Louie recognized him and came up to him (he didn't normally come up to people though he would do the same to me when I was at the shelter--even tried walking in front of me to prevent me from leaving). I don't know the details of what happened that day but he left and his mother came back the next day to try and re-adopt Louie. Fortunately the director was there and, realizing who she was, put a stop to the adoption. She and her family were placed on the Do Not Adopt list the shelter kept to track people who turned out to be bad adopters.
Eventually, Louie found himself a new home. I know all the cat counselors at the shelter were especially careful about finding the right adopters for him. He'd been through enough in his life already that they wanted to make sure his next home would be his forever and ever.
Since there was no knowing whether this cat was feral or just a frightened stray, the first order of business was to see about getting the cat scanned and given a health check. I told the shelter that I would be willing to foot the bill for the spay/neuter surgery if it turned out the cat had no owner. I would also foster it until such time as we could determine if it was feral or an adoptable house cat. If it was feral, I planned on simply releasing it back outside. I was hoping that the cat was really a house cat in disguise and that with a little coaxing, would settle down into a cat that could be put up for adoption.
I emailed the shelter's vet tech about bringing in the cat, but didn't get a response from her until after I left for work. I had left the cat, still in the trap, with food and water in my "foster room". Cindy offered to take the cat to the shelter for me and even volunteered to pay for any shots it might need.
After she dropped the caged cat at the shelter, the vet decided the safest thing to do was to anesthetize the cat before trying to remove it from the trap. Once sedated, they took the cat out and scanned it for a microchip. Lo and behold it had one! So, they called AVID to find out who the chip was registered to. Even more astonishing was the fact that the chip was registered to A.D.O.P.T.! They looked the chip up in their database and found out that the cat's name was Louie and he'd been adopted out two years earlier as a kitten.
The vet tech called the adopter on record and at first the woman denied owning a cat. When the vet tech reminded the woman that A.D.O.P.T. had the record of the cat's adoption along with the woman's signature on the adoption papers, suddenly she remembered that she had a cat but had "given him away" a year earlier. Yeah, right. When pressed for the name of the person she'd given the cat to, the woman said she'd have to find the name and get back to us. Yeah, right.
Well, since it turned out Louie was already an A.D.O.P.T. cat, that meant he was placed back into the shelter's care. He was too upset to be released with the other cats yet and he still needed to have a clean fecal exam so I took him home with me after work. I set him up in the foster room with fresh litter, food and water and let him explore the room on his own.
The next morning, I came in with some canned food. He was sitting on the bench in front of the window, absolutely terrified. He was so frightened, he peed right where he was sitting. However, he didn't move away. He simple tried to make himself as small as possible. I gradually approached him and offered up the sardines I knew he liked. He wolfed them down in next to no time. I continued talking to him in a soft, gentle voice and reaching one finger out for him to sniff and get my scent. Eventually I was able to touch him and then to pet him. All in all, it took about half an hour of this kind of slow introduction before he realized that he was safe and in a good place.
Once he realized he'd landed in heaven, his personality completely changed. He became the consummate lap cat. He was über affectionate and starved for attention. I had difficulty getting pictures of him because he never wanted to be far enough away to get a good shot. He only stayed with me for a week. It took quite a few months before he got adopted because once at the shelter, he tended to be standoff-ish around potential adopters, preferring the company of other cats. He made good friends with Jamie and Casey, two painfully shy cats (who my neighbor, Cindy, eventually adopted). Several times I saw him at the shelter curled up with one of them on top of the bank of cages in the main community room.
We did eventually learn what happened to Louie that he ended up outside on my back porch. Turns out that Louie, along with another kitten named Lola, were adopted out to a family with a young son. When he went off to college, the mom dumped both cats in the forest preserve. We never found out what happened to Lola. That just breaks my heart. I hope for the best but fear the worst for her. The forest preserve where they were dumped is across a busy four lane highway from where I live. Louie made quite a trek to end up on my back porch.
We found out about how he ended up outside when the son came to the shelter wanting to adopt Louie again. He came in on a Saturday and immediately Louie recognized him and came up to him (he didn't normally come up to people though he would do the same to me when I was at the shelter--even tried walking in front of me to prevent me from leaving). I don't know the details of what happened that day but he left and his mother came back the next day to try and re-adopt Louie. Fortunately the director was there and, realizing who she was, put a stop to the adoption. She and her family were placed on the Do Not Adopt list the shelter kept to track people who turned out to be bad adopters.
Eventually, Louie found himself a new home. I know all the cat counselors at the shelter were especially careful about finding the right adopters for him. He'd been through enough in his life already that they wanted to make sure his next home would be his forever and ever.