Why Not Rehome Them or Take Them To The Pound?

Why Not Just Rehome Them or Take Them To The Pound?

Trip #3, Day 5

4/7

At 7AM, we woke up in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Yesterday was a LONG day, (see previous post) and we definitely weren’t in a hurry to jump back into the truck. Cats were doing fine, both were eating and “excreting” just fine. The breakfast was free, so we ate, and hit the road about 8:45 AM. We had 185 miles to go, but even though the drive wasn’t going to be long, our day was still going to be filled with events.

Not only did we bring the cats, we brought many more of our belongings in the trailer. Our first stop was storage to unload. The challenge was did we remember our storage entrance code. Being successful, we had to rearrange a few things in the storage, as it was already getting more full than we thought it would. Next, we headed to my sister’s house to check on our cats that were already relocated earlier, and drop off the two we brought with us on this trip.

The problematic issue was easy to identify once we walked inside the mobile home. We have relocated seven cats already, and are now adding two more. We have a limited number of kennels and cages, but the cats aren’t housed in their own kennels. To accommodate our numbers, we purchased cat structures that allowed cats to live in a 9 square foot area that had a second level, effectively doubling their space to15 square feet each. Plenty of room to move around, easy access to feed, water and to clean their pans, while they were adjusting to their new surroundings. Once the cats settled in and became more curious, my sister would open the door and let them out to explore their new home. This took anywhere from 2 weeks, to two months, depending on the personality of the cat. Since dropping off the first group of cats, several have adopted her as their new owner, watching for her through the window as she would come toward the mobile home, greet her at the door, and of course, demand attention with loud meows, to be pet and loved on. Now most of the 7 cats roam the home, but there are two that prefer their solitude in their structures. .

All these cats of course knew each other from living at our house, in California. When we would bring a new group, they seem to adjust quickly, as they see familiar cat faces. Therefore, now we had one cat structure available for new residents, so we decided to put both cats (even though they traveled in two kennels separately), together in the empty cat house. These two cats have a more special place in my heart. Midnight, is 9 years old, and has moved several times with us. The other is my daughter’s cat that she left with us when she went to college. My daughter desperately would love to have her cat with her, but that is not possible at this time.

We have one more cat at home, which I will talk about in the blog in the near future.

Why don’t we just give them to a shelter? Why don’t we rehome them? It would be so much easier, and less expensive too, so why go through all this to move our cats. Because, they are our cats. We promised, when we adopted them, to give them a forever home. We never promised them we would be located at the same home their whole lives, but we did promised to take care of them. ALL these cats are rescue cats. All adopted from shelters, or were unwanted kittens. One that we brought with us was surrendered by her previous owners. She is a very shy 4 year old, smokey calico. A beautiful cat, but adult cats don’t get adopted quickly. We named her Iris, one of my favorite flowers, but time was running out, as she had already been at the shelter for 4 months. She has a loving home, how do I give her back to the shelter? I can’t.

Another group of three cats we brought with us, we adopted as feral cats. When we moved back into our house after the renters vacated the property, we found it was overrun by mice and rats and with them came snakes. Within days of moving back into our home, we adopted Noise, Echo and Whisper. Each of them lived up to their name too. They continue to live up to their names at their new home.

Then we adopted a family of four kittens and their mom. The lady, let's call her Sue, said she went to the “wild” cat spayed, but it was too late, the vet said she was pregnant. Sue allowed the kittens to be born, kept one, and had to find a home for the rest. She brought them to a farmer’s market, where I had my daughter and son pick two kittens. Then their dad said, bring them all home. A week later, the soSue called and asked if we would take the mom too, as she was very aggressive after she lost her kittens. We then adopted the mom too. Since we had a cat named Iris, we called our newest cat, Dahlia. If you ever had an animal “pick you”, you will understand what I am about to say. I was fortunate enough to have Dhalia pick me out. Maybe she found a connection with me, as we were both mothers. When the kittens played with her, she would look at me as if to say, “see what I have to put up with?” We were kindred spirits and our bond grew quickly. She followed me throughout my property. If I was in the orchard, she was there with me. If I was cleaning the duck house, she stayed close to encourage me. In the garden, in the house, in the field, Dahlia was always within view, as she would stay with me all day. Unfortunately, her one bad habit was going across the street to hunt for mice. As if I had a psychic vision, I knew one day I was going to lose her. One Saturday morning, I found Dahlia near our driveway, hit by a car. I was crushed. I buried her in the orchard where we spent a lot of time together. I visit her every time I go to my orchard.

We moved 3 of her kittens, all adults now, to their new home, as the 4th one was also hit by a car. The road in front of our house is a ONE LANE road, but cars speed 40 to 50 miles an hour as if every moment is an emergency. In total, we have lost 7 cats in the 30 years we have lived here.

The rest of the cats we have moved have similar stories, a 6 week old kitten, much too young to be taken from mom, being given away at a swap meet, and two others we adopted from rescue shelters. Yes, we’ve adopted many animals, and we promised each of them a good home until they cross the rainbow bridge. And that’s why we moved them to our new home.

After setting up our two newest occupants, we headed to view a property that was for sale near my sister’s home. Once we are able to sell our home, we will consider different options for our living situation. But for now, we have relocated all our cats….At least that’s what we thought.

My Dahlia