Cat for sale

Actually, she's not even for sale. She's FREE to a great home. And that's exactly what I said on the craiglist ad I just posted for her today. This is not the first time that I've put her on craigslist. The first time was about six months ago and I got exactly zero responses. Which is pretty amazing considering that you can put a pile of dirt on craiglist for $1 and get about a million responses in the first 30 seconds. But for our adorable Catalina: Zilch. Zero. Nada.

Now, even though it might appear that we only like to threaten parting ways with our dear kitty cat - I have to say that this is becoming an increasingly difficult and serious issue for us. Yet, we do take our kitty parental responsibilities seriously and have never really considered it an option to drop her off at a shelter. We wouldn't do that to our child (which I'm sure you're all relieved to hear) and we feel we can't do that with our cat who we agreed six(ish) years ago - with our signature on paper - to adopt and love through good and bad.

Why all the frustration for a kitty cat who, on the surface, seems only loving and adorable? Well, first of all, she is adorable and loving. Which is what makes everything even more difficult. She has a very good heart and would cuddle on your lap 24/7 if you let her. But those of us who live with her see other, not so good traits. First of all, she comes from West Virginia (not that I'm judging W. Va. cats, but I bet you can get a picture in your head) where, before adoption, we believe that she was on her own and was forced to become a scavenger kitty. This part of her personality has never left her. She is obsessive about food. Many have heard the story of the time we chased her around the house with a steak in her mouth or when she ate raw chicken from the kitchen counter. And don't even bother coming anywhere close to the kitchen after 3:30pm or you'll be hounded with nonstop painfully annoying meows until you feed her. As a result of her obsession, we have a whole procedure that involves feeding the cats in separate rooms so that Catalina doesn't steal all of Zach's food after she inhales her own portion.

Second, she is ruining our things. The newest trend is that, despite placing several scratching items throughout the house, she has taken to scratching places where we would like her not to - including most recently, our leather chairs. Yesterday I caught her scratching one of the legs of our leather dining chairs. I flipped it over and saw that the leg is all torn up. But she's also doing it to our leather sitting chairs in the living room. Today, Ian and I arrived home and Ian walked in the living area and said, "Uh oh, mommy" pointing at the arm of the chair. I walked over and saw that she had torn holes all up and down the arm of the chair while lying on her blanket in the chair. Double ugh.

Third, and here's the most serious one - she is a safety issue with Ian. While she was great with him as a baby, she's not so great with him as a toddler. This is because she's so obsessed with being close to people that, unlike Zach who runs the other way when Ian starts to get too close, she doesn't know when to leave. So, Ian inevitably does his toddler thing and she gets frustrated, and on three or four occasions has swiped at him and scratched his face just barely missing his eye. One time I watched her do this unprovoked by Ian.

There are other things, too, like the fact that she has to eat special diet food (which isn't cheap) or she throws up all over the house and gets urinary tract infections. Or, the fact that she clucks like a chicken when she scratches her ears (yes, very weird but true). Or, that she quite often goes into crazy howling fits in the middle of the night that wake us up. Or, that she does just about everything very loudly. She eats loudly (SLURP, SLURP). She bathes herself loudly (LICK, LICK). She even sleeps loudly because she snores. That's right, have you ever heard of a cat that snores before? Because we have one. Sometimes I have to nudge her to make her wake up because I can't hear myself think if I'm sitting next to her on the sofa. Also, she's a complete drama queen. If Zach even attempts to play with her (which is often), she squeals and screeches like an attempt has just been made on her life. No fun for sure.

So, what do you do when you have a beloved member of the family who you realize is becoming increasingly difficult to live with? Well, for now we are stepping up efforts to try and find her a new home. We are also going to explore some new avenues such as calling around to retirement homes (she would be wonderful with an elderly person or as a group home cat of some sort), talking to the vet about the option of declawing her, talking to our wonderful cat sitter who may know someone, and potentially having her become an indoor/outdoor cat to make her happier (?). But in the meantime, if anyone wants to adopt an adorable, loveable and FREE cat, we have one we'd love to give you. Sigh.

Until I write again.