Thursday, December 06, 2007

Lucille has arrived

So, I managed to carve time out of my work week yesterday to take another trip to the animal shelter. I had to go into the office early Thursday morning, so once I was done with my meeting I headed to the shelter on the way back home at lunch.

Lucille is about 7-8 months old and was a feral stray. She's solid back except for a few white hairs under her neck and she's fairly petite (off-hand, in the 5-8 lb range). She was caught, fixed, and then turned over to the shelter for some reason. So her one ear is tipped, and the shelter employees know that she was fixed because she still had stitches when she was brought in. So she's almost an adult, but not quite (I thought she was slightly older - so I have to go buy kitten food tomorrow).

She was the most approachable of the 3-4 cats that I looked at again today over my lunch break. At first, she didn't want to come out of the cage when I went to visit. So instead of forcing the issue (she was curled up in the back corner), I just stuck a hand in to let her sniff. After a minute, she started stretching and purring and nudging my hand. Another minute and she was up on the front part of the cage ready to be handled.

I spent about 10 minutes or so holding her and petting her and she was quite happy. Then I put her back in the cage and went to see some of the others. While Diamond was very pretty, she was a good bit jumpier (soon as a truck pulled up outside and started turning on the backing beep sound, she wanted nothing but to get back down in her cage). Most of the others weren't overly interested in my presence, or were skittish when I approached the cage.

So I wandered back into the other room and opened up Lucille's cage again. She was content to be petted, picked up, and would allow me to pet her while she ate. Sat with her for a while longer until she looked like she was ready to go back in the cage.

(The lady who could process my application was just driving away when I had pulled up. She needed to run a cat to the vet, and none of the volunteers are allowed to do that or to process applications. So I had time to browse the cages once more until she came back after 30-40 minutes.)

Filled out my application, paid my $100, and we managed to get Lucille in the carrier (she was not happy about that part). And off I went. She's a very non-vocal kitty and didn't vocalize at all on the trip home.

I put the carrier in a quiet corner of the kitchen near the litterbox and left the door open. It took her about an hour to work up the nerve to come out, but it wasn't long before she found the space under the oven and she's been there for about 3 hours now. So... no pictures yet until she comes out.

It's pretty typical behavior so far for a cage-bound cat. She's going from a tiny 24x30 cage to a much larger living space. I have everything blocked off so that she only has access to the kitchen and office area. But she's only explored the kitchen so far, and that was only briefly. I figure she'll get hungry in another hour or two (she ate just before we left the shelter around lunchtime) and come out. My biggest worry is that she'll choose to eliminate back in that corner and that we'll have to do some retraining right off the bat. But she has seen the litter box, and it's been quiet here all day, so she should be doing alright.

The first week is going to be mostly about her deciding that the environment is safe and familiarizing herself with it.

(I was hoping that she'd be a little more outgoing right off the bat, so I'm a little disappointed. But I suspect it will get better in a few hours.)

Labels: 2007, Cat, Lucille

posted by Wuphon's at 7:00 PM