Chloe came into the care of Preston Cats Protection in May of this year. Her ex-owner had a kidney transplant, and developed an allergy to her. Chloe is an eight year old tortie tabby with a white throat, she is very pretty. She had lived with her owners since kittenhood, and had been treated like a baby.

When I collected her from her home to take her into care, she was distressed, and cried all the way to the vets. When her first fosterer picked her up the following day, Chloe was already stressed, and had started to scratch her face. Within a couple of days, her face was raw and sore in several spots, brought on by an old flea allergy and stress. She was treated for fleas, and we decided to move her to a different fosterer, who had a pen away from other cats. Chloe hates other cats, and this seemed to work for a while.

The only contact I had with Chloe from that point on was taking potential new owners to see her. She was grumpy and uncooperative, and attacked me and the potential adopters several times. I'm very patient with difficult cats, but Chloe was beginning to scare me.

Within a month or so, her allergies had cleared up, and we decided to move her again to another fosterer who was closer to the town, and therefore was more likely to get visits from adopters. I went to collect Chloe, but left her pen with several deep scratches and a shallow bite. I didn't manage to get her into a carrier. Her fosterer was getting on well with her, but said that Chloe was bored, and needed a home. Unfortunately, every time someone went to see her, she scared them off.

By this time, she was our longest stay cat, and was a definite problem cat. HQ advised that we should advertise her in the paper, and I contacted all our local papers. One of them picked up on the story, and after several delays they printed her story and picture last week. I had written a press release saying that we had a difficult cat to rehome who was aggressive and timid by turns, and that we needed an experienced owner with no other cats. Of course, the paper printed a story saying that she just needed a warm lap and a dish of milk! We got lots of calls from people saying they wanted a lap cat, and one call from a guy who said that he'd had difficult cats before. We did a homecheck, and arranged for me to take Chloe to him tonight.

Well, I met Chloe's fosterer at tea time, and she was handed over, then I took her to her new home. I was worried about her bolting, so checked all the doors and windows before letting her out, and made sure that she had food and water down, and a clean litter tray. I told her new owner that she would be timid at first, and he said that he would let her come round at her own pace.

Then, I sat back and let her out of the carrier. The little swine made me out to be a total liar. She showed no fear or distress at her new surroundings, and made herself at home immediately! She sat on her new owners lap, sat on MY lap, and generally made herself out to be the happiest, friendliest little cat in creation! Why do they do this to me?

Seriously, I'm enormously happy that Chloe and her new owner are together, and hope that they have many happy years together. We've learned that if we get any more cats like this, it's useless to try to rehome them from a pen, and that we have to take them straight to their new owner. Letting her be viewed in her fosterers own home wasn't an option, given her violent objections to other cats.

Copyright © Jeanette Greaves
September 26, 2001