Gotcha, Mouse!

A few months ago, Amber shared her gotcha tail. It seems only fair to go in chronological order and tell about Mouse.

That first Christmas after Rich died in 2001, we went to spend the holidays with my in-laws. They had five cats at the time and maybe they still do, or six or seven. Anyway, Heidi totally fell in love with one of them even though she was severely allergic to their fur. When we got back, she pleaded with me for a kitty of her own. Amber tolerated Heidi but most definitely was not a lap cat.

After the new year, we checked out Pet Smart (no-kill shelters have a space to adopt out kitties) and they had two cats, a brother and sister 6 years old. I figured I could get over on the landlord with one extra cat but not two and we didn't want to separate the sibs so we went to the local shelter. Heidi visited with several kitties, some were shy and some were not. The most friendly of the kitties was a cute little tuxedo who came right up to her and meowed. Heidi decided that was the kitty for her.

When I went to take care of the paperwork, I found out the kitty's name was Mouse--a really different name for a cat and I asked the shelter tech about it. He shrugged and said Mouse had just been brought in the day before by a man who didn't say much, just that he couldn't bear to keep Mouse.

Sometimes you just get these feelings...you know what the story is. "His wife was the owner and she died?" I said.

The tech looked surprised. "How did you know that?"

It was meant to be, I thought. This was another way of Heidi's dad looking out for her from heaven. I didn't want to go through a big involved explanation with the tech so we just brought Mouse home.

Here's a thing about shelters--because of budget problems, they don't have a vet to come around and care for the animals. Mouse had a dead tick embedded in his cheek. Also, the adoption paper I was given said Mouse was a female. We took Mouse to our vet and he removed the tick (yuck) but apparently took the word of the shelter about Mouse's gender.

We'd still be calling Mouse 'she' and 'her' were it not for this obsession for my stuffed animals that developed in the last year or so. Mouse always was climbing on them and kneading them with his front and back paws. I'd never seen a cat do that before, using all four paws. Once I happened to pick him up and discovered a most definite unfeminine appendage and I asked our vet about it.

From New York to New Jersey, the vets just took the word of the shelter. The Jersey vet gave me a startled look and then did a thorough exam before saying, "You're right. This is a neutered male." Mouse was very offended by the whole thing I'm sure.

It took a while to get used to the idea of Mouse being a he and not a she but he's still the same Mousie and we just love him!

A P.S.: it turns out that Mousie attached himself to TB and me and not to Heidi, much to her dismay. But Indigo joined the family last March and she is most definitely Heidi's cat. But that's another "gotcha" story for another day!