Good Friday - Gordie

For reasons that elude me, Maddie’s is teaming with customers Friday. I guess people have the day off, or there’s something about the Easter holiday. Anyway, I’m kept busy showing kitties. Happily, both the cats and customers behave well, although one woman seems a bit fixated on sanitary issues and finds six different ways to ask if the cat she’s checking out sprays (he doesn’t, he won’t).

While I'm visiting Gordie, a couple with a kid want to see both him and Loverboy, who's farther along in the same hallway. I take them to be a family, though the guy later refers to his girlfriend, so maybe the kid is just hers. Anyway, he comes in to visit Gordie while the woman follows another volunteer down the hall to Loverboy.

Gordie’s big eyed and shy, a silky soft black and white boy who mostly hides. It had already taken me several minutes to coax him to my lap, and he skitters back to his safe spot when the guy comes in the condo with us. But the man is mellow, soft spoken and comfortable with cats, and Gordie slithers back out and immediately over to his lap.

At that point the child enters. He’s kind of big, maybe 4 or 5, a basic kid who’s loud and not very aware of animal issues (asking me if the litter box is a food tray, for instance). Gordie scoots away as the dad whispers to the child to stay still and lower his voice. The kid backs himself into the man’s lap, and then Gordie – who’s been watching anxiously – makes a slow move back to lean on his other leg. It’s really cute. But as soon as the kid moves again, the cat scurries away.

They go down the hallway to Loverboy, who’s new to the shelter, an aptly named young tabby. He’s a really sweet boy, less shy and more playful, seemingly at ease with the kid as long as he’s occupied both purring and chasing a dangling toy.

A little later the man wants to meet another shy cat. He tells me he prefers the quiet mellow cats, while his girlfriend likes them active. Outside in the hallway, the child announces that he wants a dog. The girlfriend pokes her head in to say that another couple wants to adopt Loverboy so they’d better hurry.

The other couple have already started the paperwork, and it's first come first served. Maybe it’s just as well – I’m not sure the kid is quite ready to for a household cat. It’s a shame when more than one family wants the same cat, which happens only on our busier days. Good news when there’s quick turnover at least; the homeward bound tabby didn't even stay at the shelter a week.