Cercie, the short time visitor Part 6

After a while, Shirley said Oscar was lonely and we should get him a cat. I was initially against it as Oscar was getting on in years and I didn’t know if he would accept a new cat in the house but off we went to the SPCA. We were both drawn to a beautiful, gray part minx female which we both liked and seemed very friendly.

Once we got her home, however, problems arose: she urinated on the furniture and in various corners of our home. We tried various methods including aluminum foil on the furniture, sprays to discourage urinating at the same spot, and, of course, to kill the odor. Finally, we started calling veterinarians for advice and we were recommended to the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Clinic – the same one we’d used so many years ago with Cat. We brought Cercie and they checked her out for physical problems but there weren’t any. They suggested we buy a pheromone dispenser that gave forth pheromones that might make them less anxious which MIGHT be the cause of her “marking” the house.

Nothing worked and finally we admitted we’d made a mistake. What to do? We took her back to the ASPCA but, I’m ashamed to say, lied to them as to the reason. We told them that our cats couldn’t get along. Why did we do that? We knew that if we told them the REAL reason, she would probably be euthanized but if she was adopted where she would be the only cat, she might be OK. While we were returning Cercie another woman remarked how beautiful Cercie was and adopted her right there. I can only hope that this adoption worked.