A Hard Parting

Brazil went to his prospective new home today.

Putting him into the carrier took about twenty minutes. He knew something was up and evaded me when I tried to put him inside the first time. Then followed endless rounds of the apartment. I at last cornered him in the storeroom, and managed to put him in a carrier

He went to the hospital for a check-up, though this was not really achieved. As soon as he was let out of the carrier, he leaped about the room looking for a way to escape. I’ve not before seen a cat leap seven feet to the top of a doorjamb, hoping to hide there. He was eventually captured for a cursory examination and his booster-shot, but that was all. I was glad to have taken the precaution of telling the staff to make sure the doors to the examining room were closed and not to open them while Shimmer was there; if he had gotten into the rest of the hospital, we likely would not have caught him.

Then it was off to his new home. His initial room is set up with all that he could want, though this made little impression on Brazil. He did not rush about in a panic here, however. I left him crouching on a window sill.

During my attempts at home to catch him, at the hospital and at his new abode, Shimmer was clearly unhappy, but though he carved a deep scratch in my arm leaping away during the earliest attempts at capture, it was a rear claw, and an inadvertent injury. He could have been ferocious, and, I think, wanted to be – he was on the verge of growling – but that’s not him. He is a nice fellow. I was gratified that both at the hospital and his new abode, I was able to touch him, pet him and calm him.

Even so, I felt terrible leaving him, betraying his trust in me, and taking him away from what he had undoubtedly considered his home. I have helped deliver foster-cats before, and have said ‘good-bye’ to many from my own residence. But having to leave Brazil with strangers, forever, was hard. I won’t be doing the like again. However, this is his chance. I am optimistic with regard to his chances. His new people want him for the right reasons, and are willing to be patient. Indeed, they have waited a long time, their interest in him constant. Nonetheless, it was a hard parting.

This is the worst of fostering. I know that Brazil will, if this works out, have the best of homes, and my own home will be available for another friendless cat. But cats don’t know the reasons for what must seem like abandonment. Soon, though, he will have new loyalties and new joys. The past will be, if not forgotten, unimportant. But not for me.