I mentioned a while ago that with the move, we were going to try to re-home Cleo and Greta. We’ve been overwhelmed with four cats, and scaling back to just two felt a lot more manageable. My initial instinct was to keep Cleo and Greta together because they get along with each other really well, but their personalities are so different that it really just isn’t possible.

We found a new home for Greta almost immediately, which surprised me. She’s so skittish around people, I didn’t think anyone would be willing to take her on. But the realtor who sold our house lives here in Duvall and she said she needs a barn cat. Since Greta loves to hunt and isn’t very big on human interaction, Dave and I agreed that arrangement would probably be a really good fit for her. Kim, the realtor, hasn’t taken her yet, but we’ll set that up sometime in the next couple of days.

Cleo proved to be much trickier. She’d be miserable as an outdoor-only cat, she likes to be inside most of the time and she’s a total cuddle-bug. But nobody we knew was in the market for a cat; and with it being kitten season right now, there’s an awful lot of kitties available for adoption.

We asked our friends, family, neighbors, the vet, and then finally I put ads on both craigslist and PetFinder.com. I got a couple of responses from the ads, but they always fell through for one reason or another. I even contacted the no-kill shelter where Dave originally adopted Cleo from, but they’re overfull with cats right now and couldn’t take her back. I was really starting to freak out about what we were going to do with poor Cleo. She’s such a sweet kitty, I figured it would be a breeze to find someone who’d fall in love with her like we did.

On Tuesday, I got the email from the shelter saying that they couldn’t take her back, and I was pretty upset, practically in tears. A few minutes later, I happened to look at my cell phone and saw that I had a voicemail. A lady had called me responding to my craigslist ad for Cleo. She came over to meet her yesterday, and decided to take her home with her.

I’m so relieved and sad at the same time. The lady seemed really sweet; she and her husband lost a cat recently and their other cat was lonely. They also have a dog, but the cats have their own room where the dog can’t bother them if they want to get away from her. And they live in a rural area where Cleo can continue to go outside when she wants to, and no worries about her getting hit by a car. So it’s a great arrangement, really. I couldn’t have asked for better. But we loved her and we’re going to miss her pretty little face, and her giant thumbs, and the way she’d drool on us when she was happy.

I hope you have a happy life, baby girl. I really, really do.

Sorry to get all maudlin here, I think I’m just starting to feel sort of emotional and overhwelmed because this move stuff is all really starting to sink in. It’s a good thing, and I’m really excited about it, but major life transitions are scary and stressful, and there’s just no way around that.

As for the cats, I suppose I just need to keep reminding myself that my litter box duties are about to get cut in half, and that should keep me from getting too mopey about it.