"Ginger" Gets A New Home

Ginger (a.k.a. "Redpuss") is a half-ginger, half white, 12-year-old tom who suffered some bad health problems last year, including cat flu, 6 rotten teeth (with accompnaying toothache) and associated chronic infection, a septic lip, ear mites, skin allergies and a heart murmur. His story is documented at the Help Save Ginger page, if you'd like some background information.

While his health problems were sorted out, finding a new home for him has proved to be something of a problem. Neither friends nor family were in a position to take him in for two reasons - he's a cat-flu carrier (and my vet was insistent that Ginger should not to to a house that already has a cat) and his age (people are too worried that an ageing cat just means big medical bills down the road). Notices stuck up in supermarkets, libraries and vet clinics didn't get a single reply.

I contacted a few catteries to see if they could offer any leads I could follow up on. While they couldn't suggest anyone to place the cat with, they suggested contacting an animal shelter who didn't euthanise unwanted animals. Unfortunately, when I contacted them, they told me they only now dealt exclusively with dogs (apparently there'd been unholy war between the cats and dogs when they catered for both). They advised me to contact the Irish Cat Protection Association (Ginger and I live here) through their webpage.

Emails to their advertised email address went unanswered and after several aborted phone calls, I got a message saying that they'd moved and had a new phone number. I tried that only to get a message saying they were unavailable for several days and to leave a message. I did, but time was running out for Ginger.

Then last weekend, I received a call telling me that a home had been found for Ginger. It seems that a grand-niece of Ginger's original "owner" (read the Help Save Ginger page to see why the word's in quotes) has stepped in to take care of him. So, sometime in the next 7-10 days, he'll be heading off to his new home. It's a relief knowing that the Sword of Damocles no longer hangs over him and that the possibililty of having to have him put to sleep is now no longer an option.