House Guest

The BF called me recently, very upset about Storm, the cat who lives in her boss's home office. Storm is a wonderful, affectionate cat whom we both care about very much. He's also a total character who does tricks like "sit" and "shake" for treats.

In order for this to make sense, you have to know the following: Her boss is an old family friend to both of us. Her parents and my in-laws go back over 30 years. They are very nice people who are generous and kind-hearted towards other people, and who have done wonderful things for us over the years. Unfortunately they also happen to be the kind of folks who treat pets as disposable. It is only because of the deep personal history that the BF and I can handle this particular aspect of their personalities. I can only give them credit for allowing us to step in when we want to without protest, because I've seen other animal owners insist on euthanizing rather than allowing someone else to help their pet.

Storm had clearly injured a rear leg and was in obvious pain. We know this because rather than hiding and sulking like a typical cat, he plopped down in front of her computer screen, stuck his leg out at her and howled. (Like I said, a total character.)

The BF felt trapped - she wanted to get the cat treatment, because she knew her boss was going to leave the decision for treatment up to their (spoiled rotten, drop-out) teenager and that he had flippantly said "just put him down." But she was about to leave town for a week to take her mom to the Mayo clinic regarding a mass on her liver (thankfully benign), a clear priority.

She convinced them to wait until she returned to do anything. Upon her return, she found that even though his leg was clearly injured and he could no longer jump onto the counter, it hadn't even occurred to them to put food or water where he could reach it. And of course they're still letting him wander around outside. Sadly, this did not surprise us, only strengthened our resolve to help him.

The BF has taken him to 3 consultations and been told various things, from dislocated hip to torn ACL, from '$600-$800 surgery is necessary right away' (which she's already decided she will pay for) to 'confine him for 3 weeks to see if it will heal on its own before looking at surgery.'

She can't take him home because she has an aggressive cat that will attack any cat in sight; we all know it would be an immediate blood bath. The boss's cleaning lady is thinking about taking him, but can't really afford to and the BF would have to pay for his food and litter and medical care anyway. I can't realistically take him because (challenges of integrating an outdoor cat into an all-indoor household of 5 existing pets aside) I'm giving birth any freaking minute now. And his actual owner... yeah. Food and water not even on their radar, so we can forget pain pills and special treatment for nearly a month (let alone if post-surgical care becomes necessary!).

Long story long, he's currently in my guest bathroom. The baby isn't here to need it yet and my mom's not coming to stay until next Wednesday. I figure at a minimum he can get at least some of his healing done here until we figure something else out. We openly admit we're being a little selfish not looking too far outside our circle because we love him and don't want to see him go completely away.

He's snuggly and purry and confused about his surroundings and we try to spend individual time with him a several times a day. The most remarkable thing has been how calm he is and how unremarkably my pets have responded. Bogart can be territorial and I was concerned about that, but the one time he tried to get in he ignored Storm and went straight for his food. I was almost hoping for some inter-pet drama; having his presence be a non-event makes it much harder on me to know I can't keep him.

At the moment our best bet is for him to heal up with me and then re-integrate him into his owner's home. At least BF is there all day, every day for work and can keep an eye on him. I simply don't know how long I can reasonably let him stay (for one thing, with him being an outdoor cat I can't handle his litter, which is unfair to Wonderful Husband) but it makes me feel at least a little better to do as much as I can for him.