I know that sometimes cat adoptions don’t turn out to be a good fit. That’s why there are clauses in the adoption contracts from good rescue groups requiring that the cat be returned to the rescue group rather than being rehomed. I just never expected it would apply to my household of cats.
Today, it is.
Beau, the beautiful black kitten who joined the family last month is going back to his foster home. After a really promising first couple days, it became a painful struggle to try to fit him in socially.He’s just too dominant for Pierre and Ashton. I realize now that I should have made the decision earlier, but I was trying to find a way to make it work, and Ashton has regressed further and further as a result. There are days when she won’t come out from under the bed to eat because she is so afraid of Beau.
It isn’t his fault, of course. Beau is a confident, happy young cat who wants me to himself. And he wants the bed to himself. And he wants the sofa to himself. And he wants the sunrooom to himself… And the living room, the bathroom, the kitchen… The other cats aren’t contesting his dominance, and it has snowballed to a situation that isn’t healthy for them.
Beau would be perfectly happy to stay here, but for the other cats’ sake, he needs to go where he can find a forever home that lets him be the top cat. Or where he’s with more assertive cats who won’t be intimidated by his dominant behavior.
I’m lucky it’s this kind of goodbye. I’m not losing him to illness or injury, and he’s going to a loving foster home where his brother, Dallas, still lives. But while the other cats are going to throw a ticker tape parade when they realize it’s safe to walk across the living room again, I know I’ll miss the purring, snuggling, happy boy who insisted on sleeping on my pillow. You can’t help but lose a piece of your heart to a cat like that, and he will take it with him when I have to say goodbye today.
