so "hey let's start looking for a cat" may have escalated very quickly and in an unexpected direction

...???????

the plan was for a young adult, and I've mostly been looking at tuxedos and other combinations of straight black and white. zero interest in tabbies or torties or the like, personally.

naturally it looks like we may end up with a senior mackerel tabby

me picturing a cute bouncy lil tux and then stumbling onto the sob story of a sad and lonely old man

his owner died and the owner's kid has been a dick to the cat and now there's a rush to get him adopted before he ends up wasting away in a shelter

they say he's a healthy senior though just like. vibrating with stress.

Ah yes, I know this mood. When cappy died I said, "I'd like a young healthy dog for a change, perhaps a chiller breed..." wound up with another senior jack russell with behavioral issues three days later because I couldn't leave her there!!!

I found this out from a post on Nextdoor and multiple people had said they wanted him but the the person who put it up said no one had actually contacted her

ȡ𝓲𝘴ą𝘴𝓽є𝓻 I MEAN. what's really the alternative?

She had been there for two years already and had skin sores from chewing herself because of stress. I took her home the next day.

this is also par for the course for me bc the adoption process for Nezumi was her original owner basically saying "it's you or a child who will torture her, so... have a cat."

You may well be doomed, ngl.

although she was young and healthy other than being declawed and orally fixated. but just. "hello, this cat needs you now."

ȡ𝓲𝘴ą𝘴𝓽є𝓻 if this goes forward we could probably use your advice because Nezumi was also super easygoing with big changes and I don't have much experience with the kind of sloooowwwww acclimation it sounds like this dude might need

also paging 𝕊𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕝ℝ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥ℍ𝕖𝕣𝕖 come to think of it

when we got to the US from Japan and were staying with my folks I tried to do the whole "keep her in one room until she gets comfortable" thing and she was pawing at the door within a few hours lol

Nezumi: okay I have seen this room what does the rest of My Apartment look like

yeah lmk <3

how can someone take an animal their mother loved and hurt it??

I don't think he abused him or anything, just really neglected him

wooooooooooow that is such horseshit

my advice is always the same for new cats, even though Nezumi defied it: start with a room that has hiding spots but no like, nooks and crannies that they could get trapped in (see: laundry rooms are bad, because a terrified cat will shove itself out a dryer vent)

we're probably going to have to use the bedroom, our apartment is like your old one, there's no other enclosed space (other than like... the bathroom)

that works for the next step