I’m a Crazy Cat Lady Once Again
A week ago, I was still one cat shy of crazy
For many years, I’ve maintained that six is the magic number of cats that qualifies one to be a Crazy Cat Lady. I chose this number mostly because I had five cats, which made me one cat shy of crazy.
And then more cats happened. At one point, I had ten — my personal record. Eventually, however, I got back down to five.
Until today. I ended up bringing home a cat I saved a few days ago. His name is Scooter (I’ll post the original article about him down below). The initial plan was for him to go live on a friend’s farm.
He traveled with me to Illinois for Thanksgiving, a four-hour drive. I had him in my backpack carrier because the last time he was in a regular cat carrier, he rubbed his nose raw on the metal gate. I didn’t want him to do that again, so I chose the softer carrier. About halfway to Illinois, he managed to pop the carrier open and escape into the car.
Normally I would not recommend traveling with a cat running free in the car, but Scooter is pretty chill. Mostly, he lay on my lap for the rest of the trip. By the time we got to my mom’s house, I was a little bit in love with him.
I carried him into her house. As family members arrived, he went from person to person, letting everyone pet him. He was so friendly and so relaxed that my mom decided maybe she wanted to keep him.
I was really excited that Scooter was going to get to be a housecat! My mom started the process of bonding with Scooter, which was made a little difficult by the fact that Scooter clearly thought I was his human. He followed me around, slept in the guest room with me, and was quick to abandon other laps when mine became available. My mom was a little jealous, to be honest.
But then, he peed on my mom’s carpet. Twice.
My parents are old, and my father is in really poor health, so she decided she couldn’t handle a cat who had behavior issues (or, potentially, health issues). Since I don’t have carpet in my cabin (and since I’m kind of a pro at dealing with difficult cats), I agreed to take him home with me. This means that I now have six cats.
Currently, Scooter is in my bathroom. He’ll live in there for a few days while the others acclimate to him a bit. They can smell him under the door — and actually see him when he peeks through the curtains (my bathroom door is glass). I’m also trying to get the “family scent” on him by rubbing behind the other cats’ ears and along their cheeks with a wash cloth, then rubbing the cloth on Scooter. Will this help them accept him faster? I have no idea, but I figure it can’t hurt.
My other cats are cranky with me right now.
I’ll be calling the vet tomorrow. Since I can’t prove otherwise, I’m going to assume Scooter hasn’t had any veterinary care. He’ll need his shots, and I want to rule out any kind of urinary tract infection. I’m really hoping he just thought carpet made a great surface for soaking up pee. I have some puppy training pads that I keep on the floor in front of the litter box — he may like those as an alternative to litter. And that would be fine with me.
He will also need to be neutered as soon as possible.
Here’s the link to the original article about how Scooter came into my life:
