Mr. Snippers Yet Again

Just a quick update on Mr. Snippers. He was checked out on Wednesday, December 21st, which was also my birthday. Kind of a great birthday present, being able to get him to the vet like that. Anyway, the vet said he appears to be completely blind. He MAY be able to see a bit of light/dark type thing, but if so, it's not much. They tested him for the usual diseases and he came out negative. YAY!!!

Thursday: Mr. Snippers was neutered and received all his shots. He came through the surgery with flying colors and it was remarked how kinda funny it was to watch a cat that was not only blind but also a bit drunk from the anesthesia. (We're not laughing at you, Mr. Snippers. With you, I promise.) I stopped by to check on him and he loved on me like crazy, seemed none the worse for wear. Everyone talked about how sweet he is.

Friday: Picked Mr. Snippers up around noon as the vet's office was closing at 1pm. Took him to stay (in a large dog crate) with Mr. Christoper at Salon Zen. Someone had been talking about adopting him, but we hadn't heard from her, so Mr. Christopher was planning on taking him home to stay with him for the weekend. Mr. Snippers raised a bit of a bru-ha-ha stuck in the crate, and after some thought, it was decided he should come home with me for the weekend instead. Mr. Christopher has two dogs and we had no idea how they'd react if confronted with a yowling kitty all night, and I've had to set up my bathroom for sick kitties for a week at a time before, so I have a bit of experience. Just before I was getting ready to bring him home, the prospective adopter called, and we decided to meet up today (Saturday - Christmas Eve).

Mr. Snippers was great all night. I sat with him a couple times and he would just lay in my arms and go to sleep, purring so loudly. A part of me was thinking about just saying forget it, he's mine. But, I had decided to see how he'd react with other cats as I also had a woman in Raleigh who was interested in him if the local adopter did not work out, and she has 4 cats of her own plus 7 fosters. When I brought in Google, there was a lot of sniffing, then Mr. Sniffers slunk away hissing. Not too good of a start. made me wonder how he's react with the dogs.

Saturday: The big day. I held Mr. Snippers this morning and explained to him that everything we'd done was for his own good, and maybe he could be on his best behavior when we visited the lady who wanted to adopt him. I told him this could be his new mommylady, and as her dad lives there too, he'd even have a grandpa to spoil him. We just needed to get past the doggie test. He curled up in my arms and went to sleep. Maybe that was a good sign, or maybe I was just boring him.   :-)

D (not gonna use her name since I didn't ask if I could and don't know if she'd want me to) is an artist and has a small studio space next to her house. She thought it would be best to take Mr. Snippers in there first, and bring the dogs in one at a time to see how it goes. First good sign, that she would think about that. Made me feel good. We let him walk around first, get the lay of the land, then she brought in the first dog. (The first two are small poodle mixes, the third is a poodle...not too much bigger than the others.)

All I can say is WOW. Snippers (my husband calls him that saying that he can no longer be called Mister, LOL) walked right up to the dog. They sniffed each other, sniffed each other's butts of course, and kinda walked around in a circle. Then Mr. Snippers (yes, I will continue to call him that Dear) actually loved on the dog, rubbing his head up against him. He even rolled over on his back like he wanted to play. The next two dogs, same thing; although he did end up laying down under a table to get away from the third for a bit as he was VERY energetic.

When we took Mr. Snippers into the house, he walked around, kind of feeling out the area. It was neat watching him walk the perimeter basically, like he was measuring out exactly where the walls were and such. All three dogs....well...dogged him basically, but he never seemed the least bit scared or nervous. At one point, they were surrounding him, with the especially rambunctious one barking like crazy. Mr. Snippers just scooted his way out of the fray and found himself a hiding spot; all calm, just getting away. Not once did he seem upset or scared or nervous.

I really had a good feeling when I was there. D and her dad seem like really great people, and I kinda have the feeling that Mr. Snippers will be hanging out with her dad a lot. He'll want to get away from the dogs some, and he is turning into a bit of a lap cat, which pleases me to no end. He let me hold him so much the past couple days, and it melted my heart. (Oh, I forgot; D is on the board of our local animal rescue. Another good sign?)

Snippers has been given the very best Christmas gift he could ask for. As for me, is was a gift for me as well. One that I really needed. Hopefully, he will settle in quickly and live a very long and happy life with his new family. They know where I am if they ever need me, and D promised to keep in touch and let me know how he's doing. (She's going to email me tomorrow to let me know how he did on his first night even.) She even said I could visit any time I wanted to. She may have just been trying to be polite, but I may have to take her up on that.    :-)

Merry Christmas Everybody!!!