First things first- I had been meaning to give away Tunch’s completely unused cat tree for months, and finally got around to getting it to the folks who adopted Zsa Zsa. They picked it up at my house at 3:00 pm, live 5 mins away, and at 3:30 I was sent that picture of her climbing higher than Tunch did in six months, although that implies Tunch climbed the thing at all. He didn’t. He slept near it. I actually muttered “god damned Tunch” when I saw the picture, then immediately felt guilty.
Just spent a couple hours at the animal shelter, and I went to look at a senior cat named Snowbell, and she was just adorable, but I just can’t in good conscience introduce her into a home with two dogs. She is super tiny, and has been declawed, and I just think it would be supremely irresponsible to bring her into a home with a JRT. All Tunch had to do was bleed Rosie’s nose once and she never screwed with him again, but Snowbell couldn’t even do that. I don’t think Rosie or Lily would do anything, but I just can not face the idea of sitting in the back yard holding another lifeless cat that I have spent forever pouring love into. I just can not do it.
I did test drive some other cats while I was there, though. I used the same method I did for finding Tunch and found two possible suitors. When I lived in Morgantown I used to take bags of food to the shelter every payday, and I spent weeks auditioning cats when I finally decided to get one. What I would do is open a cage, sit on the floor, and let the cats come to me. For weeks I did this, and they would invariably run under the cage or in a corner. Then when I found Tunch, who at the time was less than a year old and super skinny, I did the same thing. I opened the door, sat in the middle of the floor, and the little bastard climbed out of his cage, walked right up to me and took a swipe at me and then gave his infamous meowpurr bitchy shriek. I immediately grabbed him, paid for him, borrowed a cat carrier, and you know the rest.
There were two at the shelter today who passed. The first was the most inappropriately named cat ever, Nibbles, who has an absolutely ginormous frame and EASILY outweighed Tunch by 5-7 lbs. This cat has never nibbled ANYTHING. He was massive. He jumped down out of his crate, sauntered over to me, sniffed, and went on.
The other was a cat named Beggar who is 6 years old and a Maine Coon mix, about the same size as Tunch, but with these piercing emerald green eyes. He actually came over, rubbed his scent glands all over me and then sat in my lap.
There are also a bunch of cats on petfinder I am looking at. Chubbs, Sylvester, and Roxanne. Going to go back and check out Beggar and Nibbles tomorrow, and if it feels right, who knows.
*** Update ***
Here is a one year old Tunch: