oh, good lord! it never rains....

ok, so, as some of ya'll know, my husband and i are in the middle of moving from our tiny little apartment to a big, spacious, two-story house, and our three adult cats are completely in a tizzy about the whole thing. well, in case this isn't enough, the girlfriend of one of our best friends called us up tonight with a huge, urgent, favor to ask- and we're the only ones capable of helping her.

her parents are kicking her out of their house (long story short, they're jerks) and they've ALREADY kicked out her six-month-old kitten!!!! she had a friend who was going to take care of it for a few weeks, but he just bailed on her, bringing the cat to the vet's office where she works today and leaving it with her. her boss, the vet, is letting it stay there overnight tonight, but it has to go tomorrow. we are the only friends of hers who have our own place, which is why we got the call. we'd be more than happy to take her until our friend gets a place, if we were already in the new house, but we're in this tiny, cramped, chaotic apartment with three stressed-out cats (not to mention two stressed-out people!!!)

so, how do we (meaning us and our friend) handle this??????! literally, her only other option is to take the cat to a shelter, and there's no telling how the cat will fare at that point. how detrimental to the kitty, or our resident cats, would it be to keep her in one of our bathrooms (the closest thing to a safe room we can scrape up here) for part of the day, taking turns putting the other cats in our room so we can let her out? we did that when we brought onyx in, but he was a full-grown cat and could handle himself, and the place is such a disaster zone at the moment. i'm just afraid that there's going to be too much change and stimulus for her, going from our friend's house, to ours- where there are resident cats, to the new house in a week or two, or three (where there'd be a big, spacious, comfy room for her to romp), and i'm terrified of the dangers lurking in this chaotic house!

help!!!

Can she pay to board the cat at the vets or a pet boarding center until either she has a place to stay or you are moved into your new house and can take it in for a while? It sounds like a terrible situation for her, and what a time for it to be at. At any rate, I'm sending mega vibes for it to all clear up soon!

I was going to ask the same thing. Could a boarding house be an option? If not, and you really are her only option then your idea with the bathroom and periodic release sounds like the best way to do things... There's a chance she might get a little stressed out because of over-stimulation or whatever, but just think- if the option is a choice between your place, (A nice big bathroom with loving people who know how to take care of her and want to make sure that she's okay..) and a shelter (a tiny cage with people who have far too many cats on their hands and far too little money, with dozens and dozens of cats all around her freaking her out....) it seems to be that your place is the better option.

I think it's really commendable that you're doing this for a friend when you have so much of your own stuff going on. You're obviously a really good friend.

Oh! And good luck with your move. Sounds wonderful.

Originally Posted by Jalindal

I think it's really commendable that you're doing this for a friend when you have so much of your own stuff going on. You're obviously a really good friend.

Click to expand...

actually, the funny thing is, i don't even like her!!! but she's my husband's friend's long-time girlfriend, so i have to suck it up and deal with her. but in a situation like this, i could care less about who's involved... i can't leave a poor innocent cat to suffer due to the jerkiness of uncaring, unfeeling people like her parents.

i think that our bathroom is gonna be the plan, i'm just really, really worried about how to prevent as much stress as i can for Clover (the cat, obviously) and for our babies, and how to give her the best possible transition. i'm so scared, ya know?

Well, it won't be that bad. If you're putting in bathroom, add some Feliway as plug in or spray, and do the "kitty" intro as you go towards your move.

If the cats are relatively young kitties 0 to 3 or 4 yrs they should adapt.

There's a great post on how to do kitty intros, starting with the whole
exchange of scents while not seeing each other...

Moving into the exchange of space, and finally onto the seeing each other in their space ... (I use a baby gate to separate cats, and seems to work well for that last step before allowing the cats to mingle.)

took me about 3 months with Frodo to intro him and Baby to the house,
but now, they seem to get on fine..

well, the adorable little clover has now taken up residence in our master bathroom... she is the sweetest thing i've ever seen, and her momma is overjoyed at how much bigger our bathroom is than the crate she was in at the vet's lol...

my husband and i had a brilliant idea this morning that should fix the uncomfortable position.... we've cleared everything off the floor of our bedroom that isn't furniture, cleared out the bathroom completely, and we're reprioritizing our move: instead of moving all our non-essential stuff over first and then us and the essential stuff, we're now reversing gears and focusing on the bedroom, bathroom, clothes, and stuff to cook with. we hope to have ourselves, the cats, and the things we most need moved to the new house by monday, with the rest of the crap to follow. in the meantime, clover is happy to be in our bathroom (and bathroom closet lol) and she'll have the freedom and comfort of our bedroom at night.

she's been here for about five hours now, and the bedroom is now clean, and all appears to be well. the resident furballs discovered her almost immediately once we let them out of the study, and there were several minutes of sniffing and growling at the door, but nothing severe. she so wants to play with them, but not yet!

anywho, prayers and vibes would be greatly appreciated... let's hope we can pull this off!!!