Fortinbras is in His New Home in DC!

I was contacted by a lady named Carla to inquire about a deaf cat because their previous deaf cat, Hamlet, passed away of old age. Hamlet was adored by Carla and her partner. Here is a picture of Hamlet on his last day and according to Carla, "...but still looking stunningly handsome if you ask me."

Hamlet

While I have two deaf cats available, which the second one hasn't been posted yet, that are out of state in the midwest and west and safe in a foster home, I want to see if there's a deaf cat in her area that needs a home first. It turns out there was a deaf cat in Virginia that needs a home that I referred Carla to get in touch with. That, Carla is in agreement with. I am happy to report that it all worked out and Carla sent me an email about the new deaf cat along with a picture below:

Fortinbras

According to Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, Fortinbras is... "a man of action, unlike the introspective Hamlet, Fortinbras has planned to invade Denmark but, deterred by his uncle and Claudius, marches on Poland instead. When Hamlet dies, Fortinbras arrives to claim the Danish throne and restore order to the kingdom."

Announcing the arrival of Fortinbras, our new deaf kitten, adopted this weekend in memory of Hamlet. Given the above, we are slightly alarmed by the name we have given this kitten. Hamlet it should be noted, kept order in his kingdom through unconditional acceptance and love of all species (or at least a grudging tolerance). We hope Fortinbras (or "Forty" as he is now known) will follow suit.

On a more serious note, the visit did go very well. It's a bit of a sad story, the cat was rescued by the family's younger daughter who subsequently passed away in April. So they are pretty broken up and in not the best financial circumstances. Nonetheless they took care of the neutering and shots to make the kitten more adoptable. Although they wouldn't accept money from us, we'll send them a check regardless in the hopes that it will help them out somewhat. The other daughter was too upset to be there in person so we just met the mom, but I did e-mail her last night when we got home to send our thanks and let her know how excited we were; she seemed to appreciate that.

So now "Forty" is settled in his own room for a while; the cats seemed not as freaked out as we anticipated and our dog is her usual calm self. But Forty will clearly need some time to acclimate. We're giving him the run of the house while the cats and dog are on the patio; I think that will help him a bit. But while they're inside he's kept in his own room with the door slightly propped ajar so that they can at least sniff one another. He is incredibly affectionate!

Thank you so, so much for helping us find him. I can't begin to tell you how helpful it has been to "do" something about Hamlet's death that honors his memory.

Speaking of which, please let me know if there's anything we can do to help with deafanimalrow. Our time is tight (we're working on getting pregnant) but we can always offer financial support.

Best,

Carla