![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So I've been watching local cat adoption listings for about a month, with the hope that we'd be able to find a new cat after we got back from Hawaii. I'd wanted to adopt a cat from Hopalong Rescue (where the last three all came from), but I just wasn't seeing any cats in the age range we were looking (particularly not a pair a of siblings). Fortunately, I found there were even more cat adoption agencies in the area than Hopalong, and I finally settled on an agency called Home at Last Animal Rescue, mainly based on the cats they had.
We found two sibling pairs that we were interested in -- Mo & Minerva and Sweetie & Marco -- and we asked the agency if they'd be able to bring them to their adoption event this last Saturday. Kimberly got a prompt response saying that Mo & Minerva should be available but being curiously noncommittal on the other two. Any way, we took the bus down to 4th Street on Saturday evening to see cats and learn about their personalities.
This was when we learned that Home at Last was, perhaps, not as professional as Hopalong Rescue had been. They didn't bring *any* of the cats we'd asked for (nor did they send us any mail about that) and we learned that the folks working the event hadn't even asked about Sweetie & Marco (who we were most interested in) because the foster parents were "hard to work with". In fact we were kind of shocked to see that out of eight or so cages that only four were full!
Fortunately, there was one other beautiful cat that I'd liked from her description, Briana. She seemed pretty stand-offish in her cage -- but I think all the caged cats at these things are pretty stimulus-stunned. Then the volunteers opened the cage and she was EXTREMELY friendly. Kimberly quickly fell in love with her and we opted to adopt her. (As I said, I'd already been fond of her from her description, and her attitude once the cage was opened just underlined that.)
So Briana came home Saturday night (via a ride from one of the Home at Last folks) and she's been slowly settling into our house. After verifying it was OK to rename a 10.5 month-old cat (and verifying that she didn't particularly respond to Briana) we named her Callisto, after the moon & mythological figure. Kimberly liked the name because her coloring is very similar to the typical false-color pictures of Callisto and because it was a rare non-evil mythological female.
Callisto looks thus far to be a very nice cat. Perhaps too friendly and a bit needy -- but a lot of that seems to be settling out. Also, gorgeous, self-certain, playful, and fun. Lucy and Callisto still hiss at each other, but now it's only sometimes and mainly when someone gets right in the others' face. I'm pretty sure they'll be accepting of each other within several days and perhaps they'll even become friends as we hope.
You won't be surprised that my other news is biking. I feel like I've got most of my vigor back! I did a bike up to Temescal than up to Shepherd Canyon on Saturday and despite the heat (it was a wonderful day!) it felt like I had most of my old strength. Then tonight after dinner (ah! an after-dinner ride in the light!) I did one of my harder rides, up Tunnel Road to the North Oakland Sports Facility, then back down (via Lake Temescal) and that felt pretty good too.
Very happy about that.
In more annoying news, every since I got back from Hawaii I've had occasional headaches, throataches, and sniffliness. Not enough for me to think I'm sick, but enough to make me think I'm allergic to something in the Bay Area that I wasn't getting in Hawaii. Kimberly similarly saw a sudden spike in her coughing upon her return.
Sigh. I should perhaps see an allergist, but not right now after all these damned doctor visits of February and March (the next of which is on Thursday).
We found two sibling pairs that we were interested in -- Mo & Minerva and Sweetie & Marco -- and we asked the agency if they'd be able to bring them to their adoption event this last Saturday. Kimberly got a prompt response saying that Mo & Minerva should be available but being curiously noncommittal on the other two. Any way, we took the bus down to 4th Street on Saturday evening to see cats and learn about their personalities.
This was when we learned that Home at Last was, perhaps, not as professional as Hopalong Rescue had been. They didn't bring *any* of the cats we'd asked for (nor did they send us any mail about that) and we learned that the folks working the event hadn't even asked about Sweetie & Marco (who we were most interested in) because the foster parents were "hard to work with". In fact we were kind of shocked to see that out of eight or so cages that only four were full!
Fortunately, there was one other beautiful cat that I'd liked from her description, Briana. She seemed pretty stand-offish in her cage -- but I think all the caged cats at these things are pretty stimulus-stunned. Then the volunteers opened the cage and she was EXTREMELY friendly. Kimberly quickly fell in love with her and we opted to adopt her. (As I said, I'd already been fond of her from her description, and her attitude once the cage was opened just underlined that.)
So Briana came home Saturday night (via a ride from one of the Home at Last folks) and she's been slowly settling into our house. After verifying it was OK to rename a 10.5 month-old cat (and verifying that she didn't particularly respond to Briana) we named her Callisto, after the moon & mythological figure. Kimberly liked the name because her coloring is very similar to the typical false-color pictures of Callisto and because it was a rare non-evil mythological female.
Callisto looks thus far to be a very nice cat. Perhaps too friendly and a bit needy -- but a lot of that seems to be settling out. Also, gorgeous, self-certain, playful, and fun. Lucy and Callisto still hiss at each other, but now it's only sometimes and mainly when someone gets right in the others' face. I'm pretty sure they'll be accepting of each other within several days and perhaps they'll even become friends as we hope.
You won't be surprised that my other news is biking. I feel like I've got most of my vigor back! I did a bike up to Temescal than up to Shepherd Canyon on Saturday and despite the heat (it was a wonderful day!) it felt like I had most of my old strength. Then tonight after dinner (ah! an after-dinner ride in the light!) I did one of my harder rides, up Tunnel Road to the North Oakland Sports Facility, then back down (via Lake Temescal) and that felt pretty good too.
Very happy about that.
In more annoying news, every since I got back from Hawaii I've had occasional headaches, throataches, and sniffliness. Not enough for me to think I'm sick, but enough to make me think I'm allergic to something in the Bay Area that I wasn't getting in Hawaii. Kimberly similarly saw a sudden spike in her coughing upon her return.
Sigh. I should perhaps see an allergist, but not right now after all these damned doctor visits of February and March (the next of which is on Thursday).