Welcome to Adopting Your Pet

If you read my post from last week, you might have seen in the last paragraph that I announced that I had adopted a cat. This was both a spontaneous and non-spontaneous adoption. It was spontaneous in that I wasn't sure if I was ready to adopt and hadn't fully prepared myself to do so. Non-spontaneous in that I had started looking into having another cat enter my life since January. I had thought about fostering, becoming a pet sitter, or volunteering with a shelter.

She knows she's pretty.

I knew that I would eventually become attached to any fur baby that came into my life, so I figured adoption would be the best for all parties. 

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you'd know that this isn't my first cat. My first cat, Karma Lynn, passed away last August. She had been living with my full time for five years - starting the summer COVID-19 was in full swing. Before that, she had been living with my mom and her dogs. 

Karma Lynn

Karma Lynn, came to stay with for a weekend in 2008 and never left. We didn't so much "pick her" as she was a tiny little baby who needed love and my family was so excited to provide it. It also helped that our dog, Gertrude (a German Shepard Border Collie mix), decided that she wanted to mother the teeny tiny abandoned kitten with a hurt paw. Gertrude sadly passed away in 2019.

Gertrude

Unlike Karma Lynn, Gertrude had been adopted after my parents did a bunch of research on Border Collies. Our first family dog, Lafayette, was a Cocker Spaniel English Setter mix. He had also been adopted at a rescue event at a local pet store. We had gotten him when he was two and well past the puppy stage. He had some quirks, but my parents loved how protective he was towards me and my sibling. Sadly he passed away very young (he had cancer at the age of six). My parents had agreed that we'd get a puppy after Lafayette and thought that a Border Collie would be a good bread for our family. 

Initially, we went to see a different Border Collie puppy. I don't remember the dog's name, though I do recall that the puppy was a boy. However, one of my parents spotted Gertrude and decided that she was perfect for our family. It probably helped that puppy Gertrude fell asleep in my dad's hand while we were bonding with her and it was beyond adorable.

Long story short, I was used to adopting pets. Karma (and to a lesser extent my mom's Husky Millie) was a product of the cat distribution system (also known as the CDS). This is when the universe decides that a person or family needs a cat and one shows up that becomes that person or family's cat.

I could have left it up to the CDS again. There are a number of cats who run around the neighborhood and it's unclear home many of them have permanent homes. However, I also have specific needs when it comes to cats. 

Specifically, I'm super allergic to short hair cats and mildly allergic to long haired cats. Naturally, if I wanted another cat, it would have to be long haired. 

I was also a bit attached to Karma Lynn's fur coat. She was what was known as having a prominent tortoiseshell coat. These cats are known as torties. Technically with the white splotch on Karma's chest, she was more of a mix between a calico and tortoiseshell - otherwise known as torticos. So I was keeping my eye out for a long haired tortie up for adoption. 

This is a rarer combination that some of you might realize. Tortoiseshell coats are already fairly uncommon, but combined with a long haired cat (which make up 10% of the cat population), I was looking for a very small needle in a very large haystack. 

That was until a family friend who had started a rescue mentioned that another rescue had recently gotten a long haired tortie in. The friend gave me the contact information for the rescue and I hesitated. 

Was I ready for a new cat? 

The trauma of losing Karma is still fresh. I know some people can get new pets fairly soon after a loss, but I wasn't sure if I was ready. 

The truth is, I missed having a cuddle buddy. I missed playing and laughing with a furry friend. I missed having a companion to look after (no I don't need a significant other, grown people should be able to take care of themselves). 

A few days later, I decided to ask about the rescued cat.

However, the long haired tortie wasn't the cat I ended up taking home. 

While I was at the rescue, I met the cat I was curious about. She was tiny and had been bullied by the bigger cats. She was cute and sweet, but we didn't fully connect and she was a lot young than I was hoping to adopt. The rescuer mentioned that she had two other long haired cats that I could meet. One was an eight year old boy, the other was a one or two year old girl.

The long haired boy was sweet and super cuddly. I wouldn't have minded him, but he seemed really happy with his rescuer. 

The girl, however, immediately ran up to me and demanded my full attention. Her foster name was Summer and she had a light brindle back with white legs and stomach. She wasn't a tortie, but she was very close to one. She started batting the other cats away from me - pretty much saying that I was her human. 

I had been chosen and Summer was coming home with me. 

I waited a week so that I could get my house in order and get through a stressful week at work. In that time, I thought up a name for my new feline companion. Summer was a nice name, but she looked like a regal lady and I wanted to give her a name worthy of her look. Before meeting her, I was toying with the name Pawlette as a fun pun. This cat was not a Pawlette. 

I then went through a few more regal sounding names like Cordelia, Aurora, and Artemisia. I even thought of names that might incorporate her foster name - like Lady Summerwind. 

Then I remembered my favorite character from one of my favorite books. Wilhelmina Harker, nee Murry, is an amazing character in Dracula the book. If there was a name for this cat it was Wilhelmina. Summer became her middle name. 

I brought her home last Saturday and it's been an adjustment. I'm lucky that I get to work from home whenever I want. So I spent the last week home with her - I also spent a small fortune on cat trees, food, treats, and other supplies. We did end up going to the vet in the middle of the week and I found out she has a double ear infection, but otherwise she seems very happy.

I wasn't expecting to adopt the cat that I did - especially once I found out she was just over a year old. However, I do think I made the right choice. I'm already happily changing my life (for the better) to meet Willa's needs (I'm calling her Willa instead of Mina for short). 

So please give a warm welcome to Wilhelmina Summer. She's already captured my heart.

Until next week. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Pet Loss

Last week, my beautiful cat, Karma Lynn, crossed the rainbow bridge. She’d been battling kidney disease for roughly a year and took a sharp turn for the worst in July. For five years, Karma had been my constant companion and cuddle bug. She was with me during the worst of COVID, my second layoff, taking care of one of my parents after a stroke, and when that same parent later passed away.

Karma had been my family’s cat for 17 and a half years. She came to stay with us for one weekend and never left. 

Karma’s start to life wasn’t the easiest. She’d been found by a construction worker in the neighborhood I grew up in, alone with a hurt paw. The construction worker took her to a nearby house which happened to belong to friends of ours. The friends called my mom, who helped take Karma to the vet. 

The vet said that Karma was about a month old and that she might lose the paw if she didn’t have constant care. They also said she was a short hair domestic tortoise shell cat (more on this later). Our friends, who were looking for a permanent home for Karma, had a trip coming up, so they left her at our house. 

My family, at the time, had a two year old boarder collie German shepherd mix. We weren’t sure how the dog would react to a cat, so Karma was placed in the first floor bathroom away from Gertrude (the dog). Karma had a nice little set up where her leg could heal and her cone of shame wouldn’t bother her. 

While I was out walking Gertrude - I had the night walks - my family took Karma out of her designated shelter and were cuddling her on the couch. I soon as I got back, I let Gertrude off the leash and closed the garage door. As I opened the door to go inside, Gert shot off like a rocket, jumped on the couch, and excitedly tried to lick Karma.

Badly startled, Karma also took off, racing over my sibling’s shoulder and falling down the back of the couch - only to be caught by her little cone before falling the whole way to the ground. My sibling got a small scar on their chest out of the commotion.

Gertrude loved Karma. They weren’t always buddy-buddy, but they occasionally curled up together. Gert loved mothering Karma while she was still tiny and, when Karma grew older, loved it when Karma would swipe chewable items off high places for her to gnaw on. My dad lost several very nice pens to Karma and Gertrude’s antics.

Sadly, Gertrude passed away in early 2019. She was about 12, nearly 13, years old. Karma was about 10, almost 11 at the time.

What ended up causing my family to keep Karma was one of my parents and my sibling begging to let her stay. My parent had put her on a little red velvet pillow and was carrying her around like the queen she knew she’d be. Every time she was lifted up, kitten Karma would let out an imperial meow as though addressing the rest of us as her loyal subjects. 

My other parent caved and I accepted the fact that we now had a cat.

It was only after deciding to keep her, did we finally decide a name for her. One of our family friend’s suggested we call her Karma since us taking her in would bring “good karma”. Coincidently, while on the way to the vet, the song “Karma Chameleon” came on the radio and quickly became the go to song to sing to Karma. I like to think I was the one to get the name Karma to stick, but we were all likely calling her Karma. 

There isn’t any story about how Lynn came about as a middle name and my one parent always insisted it was actually Kitty. 

My personal favorite memory of Karma was a year or so into my university years. Karma liked going into the basement and hunt for mice. Normally, we’d find the successful hunts lined up in the living room - nose to tail - waiting to be discovered. This particular night, Karma had had a successful hunts lined up and as she was bringing her catch up, I spotted her. I told her to drop the mouse; I thought it was dead. I wanted to get rid of said dead mouse now instead of waiting to find it later.

Karma ducked her cute little head as though to drop her prize, but didn’t. Instead, she gave me a look like: “are you sure you want me to drop it?” I said drop it a second time. And she dropped the mouse.

The mouse was not in fact dead.

It scampered through the kitchen, passing my sibling who jumped on the kitchen island screaming her head off, and found a hiding spot near the shoe box in the front hall. Needless to say, Karma gave me a “what did you except?” look, then shot off after the very much alive mouse. I grabbed the broom and dustpan and followed my miniature tiger to where she had cornered her quarry.

It took the better part of an hour, but eventually, I did get the still very much alive mouse away from Karma. I trapped it on the dustpan and released it outside. It was not a cute mouse. It was ugly, with a face like a snarling opossum mixed with a particularly feral wolverine. 

Karma was not happy with this development.

The vet said that Karma was a domestic short hair cat - which in the cat world means she was a mutt. However, she was not in fact short haired. Her hair grew long and fluffy. It got everywhere. I often brushed it for her in her later years. And when I did have to give her an infrequent bath, she looked like a sad Victorian child once the process was said and done. Her tortoise shell coat with black and orange meant that she looked like a Halloween decoration year round. She did have a white chest and socks (her paws were white), but that didn’t lessen the infamous tortitude tortoise shell cats are famous for. 

Karma was a spicy kitty and she left everyone know it.

The reason Karma came to live with me isn’t the happiest, but she became my cat because of it. Her later years were spent at my apartment playing with her toys (the ghost was her favorite) and enjoying time on the balcony and in front of the fireplace (weather dependent). 

This past year was especially tough. I knew logically that she wouldn’t live forever and that at 12 (when I got her), her years were numbered. Her diagnosis last year was devastating. I used to say that Karma would live to 20 out of sheer spite - which was more of a prayer for her to actually do so. There were a lot of ups and downs, but my biggest goal was seeing her in my new house. Thankfully, she made it and lived in the house for four months.

Karma loved the big guest room and claimed it as hers. She especially loved the deck and would spend time out there even when it was 100F out - much to my concern. She would howl outside the basement door because I wouldn’t let her go downstairs without me. She was excited to greet every guest that stopped by and enjoyed her view from the front door of me working in the yard.

Over the last few weeks of her decline, every morning I’d wake up, tell her how much I loved her, and say how blessed I was to get an extra day with her. I had hoped she’d be here for the first holidays in the house, but it was her time.

She didn’t get to live in the house long, but she got to be here and her presence is very much missed.

Karma is not my first pet death, but it is the first time I’ve lost a pet that I was primarily responsible for. I cried ugly tears and had to have my friends come get me. I cried for two days straight and even now am getting a little teary eyed. I miss her and nothing can replace her. I’m glad I was able to give her a good home in her last years. She was my baby and it’s hard being without her.

My family has sent me some wonderful memories of her. I have a friend who is going to paint her portrait for me. Her ashes are going to my parent who has Gertrude’s ashes so Karma can be with her mama dog. 

It hurts a lot and I don’t know if I ever want to go through this kind fo pain again. I’m not sure how people are able to have multiple pets after losing one. 

But I have to keep living and hoping I’ll meet her again in the afterlife.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.