It's a boy!

So, Cass and I adopted a cat- a male long-hair called Jazz. We'd been talking about it for a while and decided to start researching the possibility seriously a couple of weeks ago. Although it does represent a 13 year or so commitment we're hoping that it'll bring us closer together and get our relationship through these dark times. We've looked extensively into what it takes to transport animals out of Australia into either Europe or the US and discovered that it's actually quite an easy undertaking. The fact that Australia has no rabies would seem to help. According to their site, transporting a cat into the US is as simple as presenting your animal at customs and if it doesn't appear sick then you're free to take it in without quarantine. All of the RSPCA's cats come microchipped, which is essential for taking them to Europe. We saw the microchip scan in action - they really do scan the cats like library books, with a portable wand.

We went out to the RSPCA shelter in Burwood last Sunday as a preliminary scouting trip. We had emailed our estate agent to get her to ask the landlord if we could have a cat in the apartment. She had yet to reply, so we weren't exactly sure where we stood. We thought it would be a good idea to check the place out first though to see what the set up was like and what we were going to need. It wasn't as depressing as you might expect, at least not at the cat end of things. They had 5-6 big metal cages about 6ftx6ft in size. Each pen had a small wooden hut inside in which were housed 4-5 cats. You were free to wander in and out of each pen in order to take a look at all the cats and to see how they reacted to you. Each of the cats have their own profile on their web-site designed to give you an idea of which would be best suited to your home. They kind of read like personal ads and are written to appeal to your "awh" instincts. A typical one read "My name may be Chuckles but it's really no laughing matter to be homeless! I'm a sweet girl who's very nervous about being in this strange, noisy place. I just want a new home with someone to love me. I'll need to be mainly indoors."

They were all very well behaved. The worst that could be said of any of them was that they were a bit shy which is pretty understandable given the surroundings. I guess the really wild ones were euthanized upon arrival. The status of each was described alternatively as stray or surrendered (those being the unwanted ones that were signed over to the shelter). When we told them that we wanted our adoptee to be an indoor-only cat they recommended that we get a surrendered one as it was more likely not to have had a taste of life outside. We went from pen to pen and got acquainted with them all. We narrowed it down to two cats, a tabby/white female that was shy but affectionate and a tabby/grey male that seemed affectionate but was so lazy that it was hard to tell for sure. Cass favoured the female, I the male.

On Monday, we received an email from the estate agent giving us the all-clear. We tossed a coin and came up with the female. I called and tried to put a hold on it but they wouldn't let us as they wanted to give it the best chance of being adopted. We went out there again today to discover that our two short-listed ones had been taken already. In fact almost the whole cast had changed since the previous week- a good sign for the cats I guess. One that hadn't however was the one in our apartment right now, and was one that had caught our eye the previous week as it really is a beautiful looking cat. We were convinced that it would have been the first to go as it is quite friendly and very pretty. However it is long-haired so requires more maintenance than most. What put us off on the first round was that it's personal ad seemed to indicated that it would require a garden to wander around, but after talking with one of the attendants we convinced ourselves that this one would adapt quite well to an indoors lifestyle. One of the women who work there said that he seems to be a very lazy cat, which suits us down to the ground. She said he seemed like the kind of cat that would like to curl up on the couch and might not have any inkling to go exploring the great outdoors.

After stocking up on all our cat paraphernalia (a plastic carrier, a litter tray, food bowls, scratching post, cat basket, blanket, litter, toys and food) we took it home on the tram and have since then being let it settle in. It's very well behaved and never so much as mewed on the way back. Cass placed it in the litter box when we got it home to show it where it was, but it seemed to misinterpret this as an identification of its sleeping basket and wouldn't come out for a while. It's since been introduced to the basket but seems to prefer the relative darkness of the kitchen at the moment. It probably just needs a little time to adjust. He seems very obedient - if we put it someplace, it settles down and looks at us, like "okay, I'm here, what do you want me to do next?"