Meet Belladonna
Mar. 18th, 2005 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqBelladonna (nee Isabella) is a 2-year-old tortoiseshell who was in need of a good home (but since there were none of those available, we adopted her instead - poor thing.)
The house just seemed a little empty with just one cat, so we went cruising some of the no-kill shelters this evening. (This was actually the second cat that caught my eye. There was a larger one that caught my fancy, but when I got up close to her and handled her a bit, she rubbed me the wrong way.) When we first saw this cat, she was happily playing in her littler box, swatting poop out into her cage. We asked about her and they said, "Oh... that one." They informed us that she was quite a character - very smart and personable. I noted her as a "maybe", and we left to see what the shelter up the road had.
The other shelter had a similar line of cats with one exception... they had an 8-year-old Maine Coon in a dark, corner cage at the back of the store. When I saw the cat, she looked me in the eye with this eerily familiar expression and said, "Wah!" in a voice so much like Bit's that I nearly burst into tears right there. If she had been 3-4 years younger, and looked healthier (she was moving very stiffly, like she already had arthritis) I'd have been sorely tempted - though I think that would have been unfair to her and me, because I'd have been holding her up as a replacement for an irreplaceable cat.
We drove back to the first shelter to have a closer look at the tortoiseshell that had caught our eye earlier. It was much less busy when we returned (it had been pretty crowded on our first visit), so they opened the cage and let me pick her up. She responded with a hiss and a growl, and then sunk her claws and teeth into my hand hard enough to draw blood. It was love at firstbite sight. I put her back in the cage, and (just as they'd warned us), she jumped up onto cage door and used that as a step ladder to plant herself on top of the high shelf. She sat up there for the next 5-10 minutes glaring down at us while we discussed some of her details with the shelter staff.
When we popped her into her carrier and took her out to the car, she bounced and fidgeted all the way out there, but once we started driving she didn't make a single peep. Not a hiss, growl, mewl nor even a thump to indicate that she was alive. By the time we got a few blocks from home we were beginning to wonder if she'd died, or gone into shock because it's just not natural for a cat in a carrier in a car to be that quiet. Apparently she's not a normal cat. Not only did she spring back to life again once we got home, but she hasn't stopped purring since we let her out of the carrier. I think maybe she likes it here.
Anyway, without further ado...
The house just seemed a little empty with just one cat, so we went cruising some of the no-kill shelters this evening. (This was actually the second cat that caught my eye. There was a larger one that caught my fancy, but when I got up close to her and handled her a bit, she rubbed me the wrong way.) When we first saw this cat, she was happily playing in her littler box, swatting poop out into her cage. We asked about her and they said, "Oh... that one." They informed us that she was quite a character - very smart and personable. I noted her as a "maybe", and we left to see what the shelter up the road had.
The other shelter had a similar line of cats with one exception... they had an 8-year-old Maine Coon in a dark, corner cage at the back of the store. When I saw the cat, she looked me in the eye with this eerily familiar expression and said, "Wah!" in a voice so much like Bit's that I nearly burst into tears right there. If she had been 3-4 years younger, and looked healthier (she was moving very stiffly, like she already had arthritis) I'd have been sorely tempted - though I think that would have been unfair to her and me, because I'd have been holding her up as a replacement for an irreplaceable cat.
We drove back to the first shelter to have a closer look at the tortoiseshell that had caught our eye earlier. It was much less busy when we returned (it had been pretty crowded on our first visit), so they opened the cage and let me pick her up. She responded with a hiss and a growl, and then sunk her claws and teeth into my hand hard enough to draw blood. It was love at first
When we popped her into her carrier and took her out to the car, she bounced and fidgeted all the way out there, but once we started driving she didn't make a single peep. Not a hiss, growl, mewl nor even a thump to indicate that she was alive. By the time we got a few blocks from home we were beginning to wonder if she'd died, or gone into shock because it's just not natural for a cat in a carrier in a car to be that quiet. Apparently she's not a normal cat. Not only did she spring back to life again once we got home, but she hasn't stopped purring since we let her out of the carrier. I think maybe she likes it here.
Anyway, without further ado...
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Date: 2005-03-19 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 03:49 am (UTC)-Whitewater
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Date: 2005-03-19 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 04:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 04:50 am (UTC)The next cat I get will be an adult. As much as I love IChabod, the kitten phase annoys me XD
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Date: 2005-03-19 06:37 am (UTC)(Poor Jaws!)
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Date: 2005-03-19 12:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 02:12 pm (UTC)Best Wishes :)
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Date: 2005-03-19 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 06:54 am (UTC)