Oscar: You Made me Love you

When cats come to Tabby’s Place from shelters, we rarely change their names, unless they are unkind…or we are on Oreo overload. If we didn’t change Oscar’s shelter name, he would have been the fourth Oreo at Tabby’s Place. He became Hydrox instead, and proved sweeter than any cookie, even through a long, annoying ringworm quarantine. Cats with ringworm must endure at least 3 weeks of cold, stinky dips in a lime sulfur fluid, which is enough to make even the sweetest souls cranky…but not our cookie boy. In his own gentle way, Oscar gets what he needs from life, from a haven at Tabby’s Place, to the right name (on the third try), to a family whose hearts he’s commandeered.

Oscar

"We're ready, I think."

Those words sent us back once again to Tabby's Place, where our beloved Dempsey Doodle had captured our hearts and our love five years before. We had lost our special boy to heart disease, and now we were ready to welcome a new kitty to the family.

"It has to be a talker," we told the staff. We missed the chirps, meows, and squeaks that Dempsey uttered to communicate.

"Ah! We have just the one - but he's in ringworm isolation," we were told.

Sure enough, a total character was awaiting us, and his name was King. We visited King weekly in the Quarantine area until he was cleared of ringworm. King was one of four cats in isolation, including a black and white one with a polka-dot chin named Hydrox (originally named Oreo), who slept through our initial visit. By our second get-acquainted trip, however, he was awake and alert and reaching his paw out of the cage as if to say, "Take me, too!"

We tried to give him the attention he demanded each time we visited, but finally the day came when King was cleared to go to his new home. A couple of days later, I told my husband, "I can't leave 'takemetoo' there." So off we went to claim him as well.

Alas, King had "issues" with our older female cat that we just couldn't resolve. A couple of weeks later, I stood in the lobby of Tabby's Place and cried like a jerk when we were forced to return him. Coming home with an empty cat carrier is one of the worst experiences on earth. When we arrived back, we sat in our kitchen, trying to convince ourselves it was for the best, and that King would find a wonderful home (which he did). At just that moment, a blur of white (our young cat, Skeezicks) flew by followed by a black and white blur with a polka-dot chin - our newly-named Oscar. It was the first of many "try and catch me" episodes to follow, with both of them ending up in a wrestling match on the floor, followed immediately by an "I didn't mean it" grooming session. I should mention that Oscar is a major talker.

Silly cat lady that I am, I have a song for each kitty. Oscar's is "you made me love you, I didn't want to do it..."

-- Joanne C.