Update on the Pretty Calico
Thanks to Animal Friends for taking Gabby the calico left behind in an apartment two weeks ago. She’ll be destined for an offsite adoption spot at Petco in a few weeks. On her way to a better home for sure! And thank you to Mary Fink for fostering her in a pinch—and giving her a name.
I’d been debating how to vet Gabby depending on where she might go. She had two opportunities for shelter/rescue last week. One was with Animal Advocates, a small rescue that has a cat sanctuary; once they are in the system, they are there forever. Cats need to be fully vetted and adoptable to go there, and a friendly cat like Gabby is a natural. They also use the local Pet Valu store as their offsite adoption place, and I’m in there all the time. But Gabby needed to be vetted to go there, and that would be around $90 no matter how I arranged it with low-cost opportunities.
Alternately, I could get her “on the list” with Animal Friends in Pittsburgh. If she was adoptable and they had space, she could be on their list. When her number came up I would take her in and they would check her temperament and accept her in if she was a good girl. Cats are not euthanized for space or medical reasons there, pretty much only for humane reasons. And they would do the vetting.
Plus, my friends for whom I’d done the portrait of Oscar featured last week managed one of the shelter’s offsite adoption areas at a Petco store, and Sally would take her in there. Gabby is young, very pretty and congenial, and would be adopted fast. Sally also volunteers at Animal Friends and fosters for them (that’s where Oscar came from) and was in touch with staff. They first asked if Gabby was spayed, and at the time we thought she was not, but if she had been she could get in pretty quickly. I filled out an application with Animal Friends for Gabby and submitted it.
In the meantime Animal Advocates let me know they had a spay spot open up and offered it to me for Gabby. That would take care of one big thing that had to happen for Gabby. I was all ready to run her there the next morning, but it had all been arranged so late in the day that we really weren’t sure the appointment was open, so we held off.
At the same time Mary had annual visits for two of her cats and decided to take Gabby to her own vet to have a combo test done—I’d have done the same thing for my own fosters for the safety of my own cats. She had her vet check to see if Gabby was spayed, and it turned out she had been. Dr. Leia Goodell is also a volunteer surgeon at HCMT clinics and knows where to find the scar. She could feel it, but also shaved to be sure and there it was.
So, I let both Animal Advocates and Animal Friends know. With some urging from Sally and the space at the offsite adoption area, Animal Friends found space for Gabby and I had a surrender appointment for Sunday morning. Sally and I talked and she let me know to tell her when Gabby arrived; she might even go to get her that day. I drove to Mary’s house to pick her up then drove quite a distance to Animal Friends, poor Gabby with that long ride, but we arrived in plenty of time. She was a good girl and was accepted, though we saw that she’d developed a red and weepy eye and likely had a URI. They would treat her with antibiotics and when that was cleared she would go to Petco to be watched over by Sally.
But even now, she’s on the road to a much better life than she had before.
The group of us with the Greenbriar kittens are also considering these two possibilities for George.
Read more of my stories from decades of rescuing and fostering cats, with a few from other rescuers mixed in Rescue Stories.
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Weekly schedule of features:
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Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
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Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
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Pingback: Gabby Was Adopted! ~ The Creative Cat
Gabby is a lucky kitty to have you and others doing the best for her!!!
She is a sweetie.
Purrs Georgia,Julie and JJ
She is such a nice kitty, Nancy, I’m just glad it all worked out for her.
I hope you found home already. By the way, all my cats are also from the pet adoption and I believe that the pet from the shelters are the best pet companion ever. They will love you unconditional and always there for you. Sometime I do volunteer to the animal shelter near me to help those animals need home. Please refer to this link: https://wagspetadoption.org/adopt
Thank you for the link Gine. I love to see all the different options for people to post their pets for homes on adoption sites. And thanks for adopting rescues.