Yeah, you guessed it already. Our Falcor finally joined us. You see, once you’ve accepted three little kittens in your home because they have nowhere to go, you cannot possibly say no to any other kitten that follows. And in my line of work with kitten-season at its highest, that is not going to take very long.

Not long after the grey kittens had found a home, I got a phone-call at work: this guy had found a four-month old kitten along a dangerous crossroads and since it was already late, no shelters were open. He had nowhere to keep it and he was leaving on holiday the very next day. I tried giving him some numbers from our database, in an attempt to find the kitten a good home, but when push came to shove, he dropped it off at the clinic after I sighed on the phone: “I will take care of it”.

I tried calling shelters myself, but all of them were packed, there was just not enough room for the kitten flood that every summer produced. Add to that the amount of animals that gets abandoned because it is time to go on holiday and well…I did not really have any other choice than to keep him. What was I going to do? Toss him out?

And so it came to be that our Falcor(then still ‘the white one’) occupied our bedroom. I have a reasonably sized apartment but with four cats already there, it was getting crowded. So I closed off the last part of it, being our bedroom. He was not much trouble there, only occasionally bored. Even after a while, I kept him in the back. Arwen was still infected with the Herpes-virus and could therefore infect him as well. I had him vaccinated as soon as possible, and he had to still be confined for five days for the vaccination to take effect.

Unfortunately, at the time, Arwen was the only kitten in my household and short two playmates. Falcor, on the other side of the door, was also bored out of his skull, so they decided to play together anyway. How? Well, you put your paw under the door and I will play with yours, and then afterwards we switch. It was sooo adorable to see. It killed me to have to cut playtime short and put a blanket in front of the door, so they could not touch. Feline Influenza(caused by amongst others Herpes) is very contagious, so I could not afford any risks.

And finally, the day was there, they first laid eyes on each other, and started racing through my house like madmen. I was afraid that Falcor would hurt her, since he was two months older and clearly had the upper hand, but it worked out brilliantly. They still are, to this day, the best of friends, and still enjoy plenty of racing through my house. And even my adult cats will now occasionally join in.

One thing, I had not counted on. When I took Falcor with me to be vaccinated, I asked one of our new doctors to do that, assuming she would also do a general check. She didn’t. And suddenly, I noticed his ears being all black and squirmy….ear mite! When they went for another series of shots (Arwen for her first, he went for his second), the doctor confirmed my suspicions. I asked her if Arwen had caught it as well, but she didn’t think so. It was not that contagious, she said.

Unfortunately for me, she was wrong. The next time Arwen returned for her second series of shots, she was diagnosed with ear mite as well. She played intensively with Falcor and those little buggers had taken advantage of that. The parasite was assumed to have spread trough my entire colony…so I had to treat 5 cats with a greasy ointment for ten days, then seven days nothing, and then ten days again. I can tell you, they learn quickly what’s coming and it aint fun. So I had 5 greasy, grumpy kittens, running around for about a month with only a break of one week. Not fun. We got rid of them in the end though ;)

Falcor was also ‘sweet’ enough to adopt Prinnies method of peeing: on the couch or bed, and he did not mind the plastic sheet being there. Also not fun. It made him hard to place in a good home as well. I had already found him a home, but I wasn’t going to let him go before that problem had been dealt with.

Remember that person I had promised Arwen? Well, she came by, met the kittens, was endeared by both of course. And when I told her and asked her to be able to keep Arwen, and instead offer Falcor a good home, she had no problem with that. Especially not, after he came over, purred, licked her hand, and basically was all cuddly. It was decided though that he would stay with me so that she could finish furnishing her place, and he could grow up with Arwen, enjoying her company as long as possible. I would also get him castrated in the meanwhile.

Then one day I saw him going to the box (he did not always misbehave), and the way he went potty, I suddenly understood his problem: he was standing with all fours on top of the box edges, reluctantly digging with his paw, to then pee in a position that only a contortionist would use. He hated the litter, which was confirmed afterwards when he scratched the edges in a futile attempt to cover up his business.

I got him two different kind of litters and the second one (the clumping kind) did the trick. I then discovered that it wasn’t as much the litter that he hated, but the wetness of the litter. My previous litter was plant-based and fell apart when wet. He hated that feeling. Now, with the new litter, he has far less problems, because it clumps together and keeps the rest of the box dry. Still, with five cats around, I might clean it out frequently, but there are still times he considers it too wet.

I finally switched all my boxes (I first tried out just one and everyone suddenly wanted to use that one so…) to that sand and nowadays I can leave my couch unprotected. I still don’t leave the bed unprotected, since I hate finding a wet bed at 1 am when I go to sleep, but I haven’t found any accidents on the sheet anymore either. Soon, with the help of some feliway spray, it won’t be necessary anymore either. He has been castrated and is now ready to go home, and soon he will.

I was up to five cats again, after doing so well in placing the other kittens. And six cats, I had noticed with the kittens, was really the maximum I could house. But the summer continued with a cruel vengeance…