Received a phone call earlier today from a woman looking for a cat. My warning bells should have sounded right away, but they didn’t. She wanted…
*a cat, not a kitten
*not an older cat, a younger cat but NOT a kitten..
*It couldn’t be black, or dark or a tuxedo because she just lost her 17 year old tuxedo kitty…
*it had to like dogs because she had an older pomeranian who was blind and had diabetes and cushings…
*It couldn’t be pure black because that would remind her of her deceased kitty and that wouldn’t be fair…
*It had to be a female, no males allowed…

We talked for a bit, and then I drove over 45 miles to her home with Secret and Scully.

The house was nice and clean, she appeared to be a nice lady as well. The dog was jumping all over the place, I requested she put the dog into another room and then we could go into a small room with relatively little hiding places so she could meet the cats and see how it goes.

She protested, but finally put the dog up and we went into the bedroom (I brought my friend Deanna with me) We sat on the floor and I opened up the carrier to let Scully out. She came out right away, rubbed against me then went over to my friend and said hello. The woman sat back just watching not making any movement toward Scully. I finally picked Scully up and placed her in the lady’s lap. Her comment: my the fur is soft.

Scully showed no fear, presented no desire to bolt under the bed. She allowed the woman to rub her belly and they seemed to get along just fine.

The woman jumped up and left the room returning with her dog! I was alarmed, but Scully is used to dogs so the introduction went okay. Finally Scully had enough of hyper Sidekick and went inside the carrier.

Secret didn’t even want to come out of the carrier. She was dug into the plastic so I didn’t press the issue.

I got up and asked the woman if she wanted me to leave the cat carrier for a few days? She looked surprised and said “You are leaving her?”

I told her, I thought the intro went well- Scully didn’t hiss or act uncomfortable with the introductions and in a few days time, she would merge into the house well.

The lady looked at me and she said “NO, I didn’t feel a connection. The cat DIDN’T come to me on her own and she just won’t do!”

Deanna’s mouth dropped open and I probably looked stunned as well. I gathered up all the carriers and said- “Well then we will take our leave.” And we left-

We talked on the way home and decided this woman had no intentions of adopting a cat. She didn’t engage the cat in any fashion and seemed more distressed with her dog being banished to the bathroom then anything else. Perhaps Secret unwilling to budge out of the cat carrier and Scully’s reluctance to approach the woman on her own meant they knew something about this woman that we both missed. All appearances pointed to a home that with some time Scully would have gotten used to- but the lady wanted an instant cat- and last I looked, strays don’t come that way. I am miffed because I spent money for gas I could ill afford, and the woman didn’t even offer me five dollars for traveling to her home.

In retrospect, I am glad the woman didn’t want to even try because who knows what might have happened if I had left Scully. But for all appearances sake, the introduction went well for a stray cat who still has a low trust meter. No, she didn’t jump into Jean’s lap and purr with happiness, but she tolerated an over-bearing and spoiled dog and that is a lot more than most cats would have done. Scully is curled up deep in my lap now and Secret is with my friend Deanna so this night ends well.