Not On My Watch/Foster Cat Journal: Huggy Update

It's already been a week since Huggy "Mama" Bear left for her new home. Where did the time go! Just last week it was August, I swear!

Huggy has been renamed. I'm a bit sad about this change. Normally it doesn't bother me that cats have new names in their new home, but Huggy was such a special kitty, it would have been nice to leave things as they were. Her new name is, Holly. Nice name and gee, I guess only a few letters away from her old one.

Oh yeah, we're cool now that we're adopted and all! I am not sure who took this photo. Either I did or Ryan, my nephew. Hmmm.

As you may recall, Huggy, er, Holly and the boys all went to the same home. I drove Dash (renamed, Dash!) and Snuggles (renamed, Turk) to their new home last Thursday night. I HAD to clear the house to make room for two more fosters, so I offered to do a late night drop off. The one thing I didn't figure on was, yeah, it was DARK outside at 8:30pm! No one has house numbers and all the mailboxes are on ONE side of the street, not both, so even with GPS there was no way to figure out which house was #8! Of course, stupid me, I forget to bring the phone number of the new owner! I had to spend $150,000.00 (maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit) to call Directory (Rip off) Assistance only to find out that NO ONE WAS HOME!

So we sat there in the car and waited awhile. Sure enough, I recognized the car and like a good stalker, followed them into their driveway once I had them in my sights.

I felt badly bringing the kittens over so late at night, but the Dad, Chris was really nice about it. He unlocked the door and we entered his home. His son was wearing his Boy Scouts uniform. Looked really cute. His pants needed to be hemmed. I have no idea why I would notice that, but I did. I guess it made him cuter. Anyway, Chris called out to Huggy saying she had been sleeping with him and his wife and was doing well.

Huggy was NO WHERE to be seen! Chris called and called to no avail. Huggy had vaporized into thin air.

I felt a bit uncomfortable about all the fussing to find Huggy. I didn't want to stress her out and I didn't want Chris to feel bad that I wasn't going to see her. Then, as I stood at the bottom of the stairs, I saw Huggy RACE down the stairs from the second floor where Chris had been looking for her. She FLEW right past me. She was hunkered down LOW, scared out of her wits. The house was big and wasn't packed with stuff so sounds really carried. I could see why Huggy/Holly would be frightened.

Resigned to not getting to say hello, I asked if there was a small room to put the boys into and Chris just said to let them out and to first show them the litter pan. He walked us into another room and there it sat, the one thing I did NOT want to see!!!!!...one of those monstrous "automatic" poop scooper litter pans. As Chris blithely lowered Snuggles/Turk into the pan I told him that those pans have the highest rate of causing inappropriate elimination of any box. Kittens can also get hurt in them. Well, Chris was havin' none of that. Saying Huggy was using it (what choice did she have?) and it was fine. (ok, call me when the cats start peeing all over the house). Also, there was only ONE pan for all THREE cats. Hmmm...

I realized that this was the FIRST home visit I've ever been on. I had to wonder how many other adopters I'd be rudely telling to ditch their litter pan setup or more? I shudder to wonder.

Litter pan blunders aside, they are super nice people and I just heard that after a day Holly (see, I can remember things!) began to recognize the boys and all three are back to their lovey-dovey selves.

Hopefully, I'll get more updates on the kitties in the coming months. It's funny how anticlimactic the entire farewell was. The boys found the litter pan, then Dash ran off (dashed off?) to explore. I waved to the boys, knowing I'd already loaded them with kisses before I left my house and called out to Huggy (she was STILL Huggy then so there!) hoping one day I would get to see her again.

So we're done. Three lives that surely would have ended in a Kill shelter in Georgia, to three lives that get to be lived fully, with two happy children and two parents who will give them all the love and good things every cat deserves.

Yes, these cats definitely won the Lottery. That's for sure.