Bye Bye, Kitties

We have given away our two cats.

My sister is very allergic to cats, and it hasn't been a huge issue for a number of years because she lived elsewhere. The occasional visit was annoying for her, but we all made the best of it. Last summer, her marriage ended and she suddenly started spending a lot more time with us. Which is as it should be. She is our closest extended family.

She spent about seven weeks with us last summer, but was so allergic to Joe and Jack that she had to sleep in the garage. She can be in a house with cats for about 15 minutes, but then it's very problematic. I hated having her in the garage, because it seems so darned unsafe. And then it got worse - a week before she went back to school in Ontario, a crystal-meth addict who was squatting half a block down burned down his garage (not that drug-addicted squatters are a regular thing in our neighbourhood, but it did happen last summer). And then I spent the last week rushing out every morning to see if my garage and my sister still existed. If one garage can burn down, another one can burn too, easily enough.

So we made the hard decision to find new homes for our kitties.

My sister is coming back for the summer - our carpenter friend was so impressed with the quality of her work that he is giving her a job building cabinets with him all summer - and she is going to live with us. Having her here is great - every supper is like a party, Sprout gets to spend time with his Auntie, we can all do projects together, and last but not least, Jim has someone to argue over the crossword with. But I can't bear the idea of her in the garage for another minute.

We tried all the cat-lovers we could think of, to see if someone would take the boys. We considered sending them to a farm. We tried all sorts of things. A few weeks ago, we finally got to the point of trying complete strangers: I put up posters in the local grocery and the local drug store. And last week a lady called.

Joe and Jack have both gone to the same family, with two kids who can each have a cat of their own. They seem so nice, and the lady has had cats before so she knows what they're like. We called to check on them a few days ago, and Jack is settling in wonderfully. Joe is hiding in the cupboard in the basement, and they barely see him. It's upsetting. We've had Joe since kittenhood, and I can't bear to think of him scared and unhappy.

Sprout and I are going over on Saturday, to see if we can get Joe to come out and meet the people better. I hope we can get it to work out for everyone. I'm happy about the idea of my sister living in the house where it's safe, but I need this cat thing to settle out happily.

Bye bye, kitties.