We lost our lovely senior Maine Coon boy McSweeney back in July; we knew he was diabetic, but he also had undiagnosed (until it was way too late) pancreatic cancer that had metastasized.
We’ve never been without a cat, and so decided that while we did need another one in the household, we’d wait until after New Years. We found a couple promising pooties in shelters, but they always wound up being adopted right as we made the decision to go see them.
One day, I find this beauty on the MSPCA site, in their North Shore shelter. 6 years old according to the info on her page. That’s fine, mom didn’t want a kitten. It was a bit of a trek, but mom and I immediately fell in love with her photo and decided to plan the trip.
Tuesday morning, we head over to the storage unit to get the ‘cat stuff’; water fountain, litter and litterbox, toys. I bought a new carrier as we had to throw out the one we’d used with McSweeney (it was about 10 years old and starting to fall apart). We get our coffee and head off.
After almost getting lost due to mom relying on, then ignoring GPS (and whining at me for “not being able to read a map”...I can read a map fine, just not on a phone screen when you’re telling me you don’t want to use it!) we get to the shelter and go in to meet “Aggie”.
She was a tiny little thing and fairly skittish in her cage. The shelter worker tells us that she had been brought in by animal control back in November, and was all of two pounds on intake, skin and bones and covered with fleas and ticks. The animal control officer was shocked that she was even alive. It took them three months of intense care for them to get her to stable and ‘adoptable’ status (her weight at the time we saw her was 7 pounds). She wasn’t spayed when brought in so they spayed her.
She had a few documented medical conditions (mild anemia, which mom surmised could be temporary caused by the ticks/fleas) and digestive issues. The worker seemed impressed that we were asking all the right medical questions.
Her bloodwork was fine except for the anemia, and no issues with heart, lungs or anything else. We didn’t really hesitate at saying “yes, we’ll take her”. While mom filled out the paperwork, I got the carrier from the car, and the shelter worker took it back to get Aggie ready. She had no problems getting into the carrier; I think she knew she was going “home”.
I had no qualms about paying the full adoption fee ($100), but the head of the shelter cut the fee in half (“I know she’s going to a very good home”). I got the impression that they saw a lot of potential adopters who didn’t ask the type of detailed questions we did.
After a couple minutes of meowing when we started off back home, Aggie was fairly quiet on the ride...too quiet as I found out. We were on Route 1 just coming over the Tobin Bridge into Boston, and I hear a lot of rustling from the back seat. The little sneak managed to get out of the carrier! (the top opening was just two zippers and a velcro strip, somehow she was able to push the velcro apart). After a few minutes of letting her explore while keeping her out of the driver’s lap (and also trying not to get bit if she got feisty) she decided to sit in the back window and amuse other drivers.
She didn’t freak out in the car as we’d feared. More curious than anything.
Getting her back in the carrier when we got home was entertaining; we had to wait her out and use treats to coax her back in. And then I decided to order a new carrier with locking zippers and a tether inside for a leash/harness.
As we’re watching her Tuesday night, it starts to dawn on us that maybe she isn’t as old as the shelter thought. She still has the kittenish claws, teeth and general demeanor. Wednesday at work I decided to plug her shelter photo into an AI site that claims it can estimate a cat’s age from a picture...Kitten, 67.5% probability.
Cue my running to the local pet shop after work and getting some high-quality kitten food (the shelter had her on adult prescription Hill’s food) and mom suddenly realizing that we have to kitten-proof a few things (we have a shelf with a decent-sized Zuni fetish collection and some pottery, that got packed away almost as soon as I noticed Aggie expressing an interest in the shelf).
We’ve seen none of the digestive issues the shelter said she had; we’re thinking that those probably had a lot to do with whatever she was eating (or not eating) when she was on the streets.
Aggie has a vet visit scheduled for Friday. Mom didn’t want a kitten, but we got one. Maybe there was some higher force at work letting everyone misread her age.
Sometimes you don’t get the animal you want, but the one you need. Something put this little girl into our lives at that moment.
She’s choosing to spend the nights with mom, sleeping in the same spot on the same blanket that McSweeney occupied. Her ‘full name’ is Bonnie Wee Aggie Burns. We both wanted to keep the name Aggie (she comes when she’s called!), and mom likes that we got her on Robert Burns Day.
Aggie with her favorite toy, a catnip-filled fish.