September 2019

A lot of people have pets.
A lot of people get rid of pets.

In 2017, I adopted 2 young Sphynx cats.
Both were just over a year when I first became aware of them on a rescue site.
They kept showing up. The foster lady insisted they go together.
Every time someone said \”I could take one, but not the other.\”
Kudos to the foster place — they didn\’t let them go individually.

Eventually I saw the post one too many times, and got in contact.
\”I\’ll take both.\”
I found out the reason they are up for adoption:
\”Allergies\”
Now…I know that \”Allergies\” generally means \”Too much bother.\”
But with these two, it was a lot worse than I\’d thought.
The foster lady got them from a woman who told her that her kid was allergic, and that every time the kid had a reaction, the cats went to \”stay with friends\”.
Different friends every time, that is. The moment the kid was better, they came back, kid reacted…lather, rinse, repeat.
I was told that \”one of them\” had papers, but she didn\’t know which one.
There were oodles of delays, because she was trying to get their vaccination history, but didn\’t get it.
Hell, she didn\’t even get their names, nor birthdays. Nothing. No info whatsoever.
They weren\’t chipped, either. So I asked her to take them to the vet, get them chipped, passported, tested and vaccinated if they needed it.
She also told me \”The dark one\” had been spayed about 3 weeks before they landed at the foster\’s house.
Bearing in mind that she\’d been trying to place them for a good month before I said I take them… that would have been about 7-8 weeks prior.

This was in early February 2017.

The two girls arrived on the 18th March 2017, late at night, in the middle of a blizzard.

I noticed \”The dark one\” — now named Jezebel — had a bit of a weepy slightly closed eye, but wasn\’t too concerned. Long drive, strange place, etc.
Both were exploring, but a little shy. Understandable.
Pixie, my other Sphynx, was immediately pissed off, took one look at them, and hated them on sight.

Within a day or so, the weepy eye got worse.
Plus… the stitches from the spay were still in her belly!

They also only had vaccination cards, not an EU Passport.
I was pretty appalled, considering they\’d been to the vet for a health check.
It also made me wonder if the tests were done before vaccinating, to make sure it\’ll be okay to do so.
If I\’d been able to pick them up myself, I\’d have taken them as is, and would have had my vet check them out.
Alas, that wasn\’t an option.
Hindsight.
20/20.
Well, one got the door open while I was out, and there was a horrendous fight.
I came in to blood on the floor, a shredded Jezebel, a bleeding Pixie, and a Livvy in hiding (but unharmed).

Since I had an appointment at the vet the next day anyway, and the scratches / bites / bleeding weren\’t exactly life threatening (though looked nasty), I figured I\’ll take both of them in the morning. That way I could get Jez\’s eye looked at, and the stitches removed, while Pixie went for her booster jab.
Well.
The weepy eye was diagnosed as Feline Herpes (FHV-1). This isn\’t uncommon in cats, it\’s treatable, but obviously it\’s not ideal to add a Herpes cat in with healthy cats. I worried about the other two, but neither showed any signs of having it.
Things went downhill in the fights department. There were so many, by August I was at my wits end.

I put them up for adoption.

You\’ve guessed it, lots of people wanted one, but not the other.
I made no bones about Jezzie\’s herpes infection, but every time I reminded someone that she will require vet visits and medication when she has a flare up, and that moving will definitely cause one… crickets. Never heard from them again.
Now, I wasn\’t even asking much for them. A good, stable, loving home was more important to me. I\’d have waived the fee entirely, but I didn\’t want to attract the \”throw away\” brigade.
Then…I got a Facebook message.
\”Hi, where did you get them from? And by the way, their names are Olivia and Elsa.\”
*Blink*
Turns out the lady was their original owner. She\’d had to let them go when she got divorced.
She\’d have loved to have them back, but couldn\’t take them.
As we were chatting, the plot thickened. The lady she gave them to, was not the one I got them from.
When I told her where they\’d come from, it became clear that the one the foster got them from, also wasn\’t the same person.
I called the foster and asked if she knew any history at all on them, where the \”allergic kid\” people got them from.
In the end, we determined I was at least the 5th owner.
She\’d got them when they were 12 and 14 weeks old. She passed them on when they were about 9 months old.
Picture that.
When they came to me in March, they were a year and a half old.
That means, in the 9 months between her letting them go, and me getting them, they had at least 2 owners before the foster took them.
The foster had them for almost 2 months.
So work this out:
Breeder: 3 months
1st Owner: 6 months
Foster: 2 months
That\’s 11 months out of 18.
Now, we determined that the person the foster got them from was not the same person the 1st owner gave them to.
We then determined that those people also didn\’t get them from the same person the 1st owner gave them to.
So that\’s at least 3 owners in those remaining 7 months, and for at least 3 months of that, they were shunted from pillar to post every two-three weeks, due to \”Allergies\”.

Those two cats didn\’t know if they were coming or going.

The adoption ad came down the same day I found this out.
There was absolutely NO way I would pass them on, no matter how many fights there were.
Livvy started to come out of her shell after about 6 months.
Jezzie… she was a rambunctious tomboy, who didn\’t cuddle.
Until October 2018.
She came, out of the blue, to cuddle with me. 

One year and 7 months later. 19 months.
So by that time, she\’d spent more than half her life with me, and it took her that long to fully trust again.
Granted, there was one huge move in between. We moved from the South of Germany to Northern France. But while it was all new surroundings, there were a few constants: The other cats. Me. Their stuff. My stuff.
Everyone settled into their new surroundings… and in November 2018, we moved one last time.
Permanently this time.

They took to the new house in a heartbeat, loving every inch of it.

Since I needed to register their microchips in France, I took everyone to the vet. I explained that Jez had been diagnosed with Herpes. The vet recommended that I finish the course of medication she was on at the time, and then take her to see their eye specialist.
So that\’s what we did.
He did tests.
I should have bloody well insisted on tests, in Germany. My vet there told me it\’s pointless, she clearly has herpes.
Well. She doesn\’t.
She has an allergy (we don\’t know what) and had a blood infection — but no herpes. Off we went with new meds to treat all of that.
They eye got better, until the nasty was gone. It flares up now and then, and we treat it again, but… it\’s not herpes.
However…
When I moved into the house I bought, there was a black and white cat hanging around. Fleeing in terror every time I set foot out of the door.

It was coming up to winter. She was skinny. So I fed her.
Eventually she got less shy, put on some weight and became friendly. She came for schmoozies, but didn\’t want to come inside. Which is okay.
My farmer neighbor popped in, and I asked him if he knew who the cat belonged to. I had my suspicions, because I found cat bowls, cat carrier, cat wormer etc in the utility room.
\”Lorraine\” he says.
So… the previous owner had left in JUNE, back to the UK… and just left the cat.
I tried to rehome Squeaky, as she became known, but no one in France wants an adult cat. Since she\’s no bother, she\’s staying. Squeaky now comes on walks with me and Pixie, down the lane we go… 🙂
But I am thoroughly disgusted that people have so little concern for an animal they took in as a pet, never once considering that they have absolutely no choice over where or who they spend their life with.