new monkeys

I really, really hope I’m not coming down with a cold. Any time int he next three weeks is a bad time for it. However, there does seem to be a front coming in – it’s colder, gray and windy outwide – so that’s probably it.

The very good news today is that last night we had someone come over to meet the cat, and they’re going to take him! They seem very excited about it. She is someone I know from the local Stitch’n’Bitch group; her boyfriend has been trying to talk her into getting a cat for some time, but she wanted a calm one. When she heard my story, she told her boyfriend. (After a couple of years of persuasion, I think one of the reasons he’s so excited is that she told him about this cat.) I have a funny feeling that the cat will decide she’s his new ‘mother’ and attach himself to her – he’s always been a bit more comofrtable with women.

They’re going away at the end of September, so they’ll get the cat when they come back – we’ll be away at the same time, but we have catsitters he’s used to. I’m very happy to know that he will be going to a good home. I feel bad about leaving him, having had him since he was 3 months old, but this is the last thing I can do for him – I’d have felt much worse taking him to a shelter.

He’s gotten braver since the other cat died, much more willing to come out and socialize. He’d always played second fiddle to the other cat, partly because we got him a couple of years later and the other one was more aggressive but more because this one never quite figured out how to snuggle with a human in a way that’s gratifying to both parties. (Mostly, he keeps moving and can’t seem to settle in one position, which is particularly difficult when you’re trying to read or knit or especially sleep. Even if we’d known that Taiwan required a rabies test six months ahead, quarantine would still have been required, and the idea of leaving this very timid cat in quarantine for weeks was bothing me, so I think this is the best solution for the cat. I’m hoping that for these new people he adjusts fairly quickly (as he did when we moved him to this flat) and that he can be the center of their world.

Rudder’s not looking forward to telling his grandfather we’ve found another home for the cat. He sounded excited about the idea of adopting our cat too, and we thought the two old guys, both fairly recently bereaved of their life’s companions, would get along well together (our other cat died a year and a half ago; Rudder’s grandmother last March). He would have been our first choice for a new home for the cat, but the logistics of getting him back to the US were fairly difficult. Worse, what if the cat died of old age in a month or a year? (He could live for another six years, but more isn’t likely – and our other cat died at 17.) We were afraid that might be too hard on Rudder’s grandfather. We will try to talk him into finding a nice older – but not too old – cat to adopt locally.

It’s not too painful to think of the cat with new people, but I know it will be very hard the first time we come home to an empty flat. I haven’t lived in a catless house since 1989, when the older cat came to live with me. I wouldn’t mind getting a pair of kittens in Taipei (bringing them back from there to the US is comparatively easy) but Rudder doesn’t want any more until we’re established to stay in one place for more than two years and it’s hard to deny his logic. Sure will be quiet at home, though.