It's been a bit since I last made a journal, so I thought I'd talk about this cat I've been taking care of!

Back in May, I noticed an outdoor cat in a yard a few blocks from my house. I would stop and pet him, and he was friendly and would follow me just up to the yard's edge for more pats. Then I noticed one time that his mouth smelled VERY BAD, and it seemed that he had something wrong with his lip or teeth. I tried to contact the people in the house to tell them their cat was sick, but no one was home. After a month of trying to contact the people there, I finally talked to someone on their way in the house, and it turned out no one owned him, he was a stray. So, did what anyone would do and came back the next day with a pet carrier and captured the cat.

So since June, I've been learning all about how to suddenly have a cat in the house. I took him to the vet that day, and we got rid of his fleas, checked him for issues, and assessed that he has rotting teeth and needs at least 3 removed. I started contacting every shelter I could to see if I could get him adopted to a no-kill place while I took care of any medical things I could afford, and also frantically googled everything about cats, from "how much do you feed them each day" to "how to tell if a cat is happy".

Cut to today, where I finally was able to get an appointment and bring him in to a shelter I'd been in contact with, to see about adoption for him. Unfortunately, his temperament does not lend well to being held in a shelter, and he does not get along with other animals currently. The shelter does not have a feline foster program, and if they did, it would be a home with many cats, which would be an issue for him. He is a very sweet and loving cat in his own more subdued way, but it's not in a way that can jive well with what the shelter needs in a pet they can easily adopt out. There are too many other animals that are more likely to be adopted, and those have to be given priority, which makes sense even if it's sad. He also has his expensive dental issue, and recently has had issues with going poop in the litter box, which is a big nope for shelters, I learned. The people working with me were very kind, though. They gave me a list of options I could pursue, ways I could try solving his bathroom issue, and let me know about low-income pet pantry options and vet care. They even sent me off with two cases of food and some litter for him, even though they didn't have to and weren't getting paid or anything for this.

So for now, it's a little unclear exactly where Toby and I will go with him. I have a few more shelters I can try talking to, to see if they'll have anything different to say, but it's not optimistic on that front. I'm confident we can get his bathroom issue resolved though, and that will help a bit with that. I'll keep asking the few people I know locally to see if anyone is interested in adopting a cat, as well. Toby and I have talked more on it, and we could keep the cat and make it work, partly in thanks to the low cost advice the shelter gave. The biggest hurdle for us is his dental work, which is quite pricey. Luckily it's not something he needs done immediately, and even then, he's still living a better life now than he was outside (he is declawed in the front, and can't bite due to his bad teeth, so he was pretty unprotected).

And there you have it, the ballad of this cat, who I've named Jelly. He is a good sweet boy, and I really hope wherever he ends up in all this, he'll be super comfy and healthy.