CC: Ready for Adoption!

admin July 18, 2022July 20, 2022

CC is ready for adoption!

It’s taken a while to say that — she’s been with me several months, after all — but after the ordeal she endured it was a challenge to assess her and to find a diet regimen she was happy with…and to get an idea of her personality.

As a reminder, she spent three years in the woods after the so-called humans she used to live with moved away and left her behind to fend for herself outdoors. There was a second cat in that household who was also abandoned, but at some point it fell victim to the elements or a wild animal. CC is a true survivor.

When she came to me from Fat Kitty City she was only a week out of the woods — her name reflects the Coyote Country she came from — and scrawny and understandably skittish. She weighed barely three pounds, her boniness obscured some by her abundant gray fluff. Early on, she used the litter box but also went in the living room a couple of times. A Fat Kitty City consultation suggested it was her upset tummy more than anything that led her outside the litter box, and since identifying food she likes she’s loyal to the box.

In an effort to get her fed adequately I offered her many menu options — brands, flavors and textures — and finally found a regime she seems content with and which has brought her up to a steady five pounds. There’s a bowl of Purina Naturals – Indoors I always keep filled, and on a separate plate I give her a big tablespoon of Fancy Feast two or three times a day. She doesn’t always rush over when I put out the canned food, but the plate’s usually clean when I look over an hour later. She prefers the chunky and flaked varieties to the wetter ones and pâtés.

But even now — now that she eats well, has solid poop and shows affection — she doesn’t really do anything. She eats, sleeps, lies around in various places, and naps on my lap.

She shows only the vaguest interest in the birds who flit about on the patio only a couple of feet away from her, which might be explainable to her having lived out among them for so long; maybe they evoke bad memories. She’s generally uninterested in toys or catnip, though she does seem to like sleeping next to the catnip-filled toy.

She jumps on the bed as soon as I’m in it and curls up next to me. She kneads on or near me, which is always a sign of a cat’s comfort level.

Because of her torturous past I’ve indulged her in ways I wouldn’t with other cats. For one thing, I toss her scraps of meat when I’m preparing food in the kitchen. I’ve also broken my cardinal rule of pets: no tidbits from the table. But considering her life before me, and the need to get weight onto her, I think the tradeoff was fair. She also doesn’t turn down Temptations treats and she knows the sound of the package opening.

There’s of course no way to predict how CC would do around other animals, though my inclination is to say she’ll be best off in a quiet household with a person or people content to let her be herself on her own terms and not demand too much in the way of performance.

I believe that animals who have endured mistreatment understand and appreciate when they’re subsequently treated well, and so in this context CC’s sweet nature has emerged. She’ll be a good companion in her forever home. Just don’t expect her to play fetch.