Janice had a cat. I say “had” because she is no longer with us. But the cat remains.
His name is Ceyx. It’s pronounced “KAY-ix”. It’s the name from a minor Greek myth, apparently.
Janice decided to get the cat a while back (7-8 years?) because she’d had cats most of her life and really wanted something else to be in her lonely apartment. Which, truly, I can’t blame her. I’ve had a cat most of my life and I greatly notice when there’s no cat present.
What we hadn’t planned for was Ceyx outliving Janice. And now we have to take care of him. Yes, I know, we could quite easily just pack him up in a car and drop him in a field and run away. But we’re not that kind of people. Pets are family, and they need the same level of treatment.
Besides, Ceyx is truly a wonderful kitty. He can be loud, he can be needy, but he’s so cuddly and you just want to curl up with him for hours (unlike our two terrors, who will only come to you on their terms, the jerks). He deserves far more than being kicked to the curb.
And we’ve tried to bring him home. He spent over a month at a kennel (and we’ll not discuss that bill here) when Janice was ill and having a cat was too much trouble. When he was here, we kept him in our spare bedroom/office, with a baby gate to keep him separated from our boys. Hodgins, our older orange cat, would have nothing to do with Ceyx and kept his distance. Banner, the younger dark grey cat who has the intelligence of a brick, was more than happy to try and ingratiate himself, which only caused Ceyx to finally snap and chase Banner around the house, screaming and yowling, before we had to catch him and squirrel him away again. I still have the wounds to show for it.
Suffice to say, bringing Ceyx home was/is not an option.
And we’re running out of time. We’re going east in mid-July. Our cats have to go into boarding as we don’t have anyone who can/will take care of them, never mind the solo kitty who’s living in a near-empty apartment all on his own. It’s not far to him. He needs people, he needs a home.
The problem is that there are, weirdly, a lot of cats in this province. Calgary’s Humane Society is overloaded, as is every single animal shelter from here to Edmonton and Lethbridge.
Putting him down? No. I can’t. I won’t. It’s robbing a creature of its existence without reason. I struggled deeply before we decided to put down our beloved Asia, even though it was clear she was suffering deeply from a litany of ailments. Ceyx is in good health. Give him 10 minutes and you will have difficulty getting him off your lap because he just wants to be with you. It’s wrong.
And yet, two times a day, we’re having to go down to the apartment and make sure he’s fed. And, ideally, we spend some time with him. Even if it’s just curled up on the loveseat, making sure he still feels love. I sincerely hope he sleeps most of the day (cats do sleep about 18 hours), but he still needs to know there are people for him. And his care keeps me up at night.
So, if you happen to want a new kitty – and just one cat, no other pets – please let me know. He’s lovely and wonderful and cuddly. I would love nothing more than to curl up with him every day, especially after the hard days (which is happening more and more and more). But I can’t, because of our existing cats, and finding him a new home is … well, probably more important to me than anyone else.
