Introducing: Hamlet

On a recent dark and stormy night (okay, so it wasn't really stormy, but it works better when talking about finding a black cat), Dr. S and I had dinner together and when we walked out of the inn's restaurant we came upon a very friendly black cat, who was obviously starved for affection.

This was during a recent cold spell here so I was worried that the cat was obviously abandoned and would spend more nights outside, prey to the elements and God knows what else. While the cat was totally smitten with Dr. S, and she might have been glad to take him, she's terribly allergic and is taking care of a non-cat-friendly dog, so that was never an option.

I knew I couldn't bring a stranger cat home without having him first checked by the vet, so I reluctantly left and decided to come back the next day to try to find him, even though I really didn't have a plan of what I would do with him afterwards. What I did know was that I could not just leave him there, especially only a few days before Halloween when black cats become the targets of evildoers.

I came back the next day, but he was nowhere to be found, so I sent an e-mail to the listserve of my small college on the hill, apprising everyone of the abandoned cat, in the hopes that the owner would step up and claim him. While that didn't happen, the college security guards e-mailed me the next day to say that the cat had been hanging out around their offices, which are near the inn where Dr. S and I first saw him. They also were very worried about the cat spending Halloween outside.

I had a very small window of opportunity to get the cat and rush him to the vet, which had limited hours that day, but with the help of the security guards and the cat's own amazing desire to please, I was able to get him into the vet's office before they closed.

Now, $430 in vet bills later, Hamlet (as my husband so aptly named him: he's a "ham" and small for his age of about 1.5 years), who was determined to be essentially healthy (thankfully, no FIV or leukemia) but suffering from everything an abandoned cat will suffer from, including worms of all kinds, ear mites, and infections, is home with us.

He has yet to be fully introduced to the rest of the household since we're keeping him basically quarantined in my office until he's recovered from being neutered and from his several infections but in a short introduction to Lizzy and Darwin we had some hissing and fussing, which is to be expected. Magellan has decided to hide under our bed until the offending intruder is gone.

"This is the best animal you've ever brought into this house!" my husband said yesterday after he had to pick Hamlet up at the vet's and bring him home and set him up in my office. "He is totally good natured and unflappable, even after all that's happened to him."

That's very high praise from my husband, who's had to put up with some of the most impossible furry creatures ever (my sister calls them "nature's rejects") in the strays and rescues I've brought home over the years. We'll see how things go and take it one day at a time. But, right now, Hamlet is part of the household and my husband isn't threatening to leave me.

While Hamlet stares at himself in the full-length mirror inside the door of my office, Lizzy has Pepper over for a visit and they're both romping audibly on the deck, after chasing each other around the yard for a long time. We hope this tires out poor bored Lizzy enough that she has a peaceful rest of the day once we return Pepper to her home.