Dealing with the death of our cat Aisha last year was difficult for us. He had been with us since before we got married and was a very close member of the family. Agreeing to have Aisha put to sleep was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but there was nothing else that the vet could do to help him. We knew that he had an incurable heart condition that would inevitably shorten his lifespan by a considerable margin but the end still seemed very sudden. Afterwards, Caroline and I needed a lot of time to grieve and recover before adopting another cat.
About the time we were starting to talk about getting a new cat, one of our friends put us in touch with one of her friends who was looking to give up one of their cats to due inter-pet conflicts. After some discussion we agreed to adopt Sage. I picked her up on my way back from Sacramento one Sunday evening, and after almost three hours of non-stop meowing from the back seat, Sage arrived in her new home. She hid under furniture for the first few days, but then slowly got more accustomed to the house and to us. Unlike Aisha, who was a very big, assertive (towards us), and aggressive (towards other cats) male that tried to escape outside at every opportunity, Sage is a small, shy female that has no interest in leaving the house and loves nothing more than cuddling against someone all day. It seems like Aisha saw us as his (somewhat dominant) peers, while Sage sees us as her mommies.
Now, after over a month in our family, Sage has settled nicely into our household, and is comfortable with everyone, even Mai. Sage still takes off for higher ground when she sees Mai crawling towards her at top speed but considering that Mai hasn’t quite been able to understand the difference between petting the cat’s fur and grabbing at the cat’s fur, this is probably wise on Sage’s part.
Initially Sage was very frightened of camera flashes, so it was hard to get good photos, but recently she’s gotten used to them.
