It had been several months since
Duncan passed away, and while the freedom of not having to get home to take care of a pet was nice, it was only a matter of time until I wanted to adopt again. Come March, I was finished with travels and ready to find a new kitty to adopt! I started by going back to the Humane Society, which is where I got Duncan. Unfortunately, they didn't have any kittens, which is important to me because I feel like a cat is easier to train and develop attachment to you at a younger age, plus I want to spend together as much of their life as possible! With Humane Society being a disappointment, I did some googling for other adoption shelters in town and came across one called HOPE Animal Shelter.
HOPE had a small selection of kitties, so I was again disappointed from the choices. They told me kitten season was coming and that there was hope for me in the near future. They also referred me to another place called
Hermitage. It was about 3:30pm and Hermitage closes at 5pm, so I figured I'd drive all the way across town and take a look. WOW was I happy I did! Hermitage is simply amazeballs! It's basically a cat sanctuary where none of the cats are in cages, but instead are in a huge room where they are free to roam around and mingle with other cats. They even have a room just for kittens. When I walked into the kitten room, I was immediately enamored with a kitten named Mackenzie. I played with her for about 10 minutes before an employee walked in and took her away...apparently someone walked in just before me and was adopting her. :( I then proceeded to look at the rest of the kittens, but I was too sad from losing the one I probably would've adopted that day, so I left the shelter kittenless.
I would return a week later hoping to find another cat I liked, but nothing really captivated me that day. I was close to adopting a kitten named Kolb, but I kept making comparisons between him and Duncan. I eventually left kittenless again and when I got home, I started thinking that next time I just have to treat this new cat as a new individual with a new personality and not look for similarities between them and my old cat.
A trip to Las Vegas kept me from visiting Hermitage for a few weeks. On Thursday, April 4th, I finally made it back out there and was determined to bring home a kitty. I walked into the kitten room and not shortly after, a 6-month-old black and white tuxedo cat began to smell me out and request for pets. I pet him for a while and then proceeded to look at other kittens. While looking at the other kittens, I noticed the tuxedo cat kept following me around. He made it very clear that he enjoyed my company and not much later I determined that he was the one!
While his name at Hermitage was Carova, on the ride home I knew I would be changing his name, like I did with Max Duncan Lin. It took me the whole ride home to decide on a name, but eventually I came up with Benzi! There's a reason to why I chose that name, but it won't make sense until I adopt my second cat, which I'm planning to later this year.
Fortunately I owned all the cat stuff to prepare me for Benzi's first night at the house. I started him in the guest bathroom, a small and enclosed space, which is where you should introduce a new cat to their new home. He was very nervous at first and would barely eat anything on the first day. I would eventually introduce him to a majority of the house with lots of supervision, but come bedtime I had him sleep in the bathroom.
The next day, I worked from home to make sure he would get all the attention he needed. He was still very friendly and affectionate towards me, but I knew he was still nervous because he had a messy accident outside his litter box on the carpet in the hallway. Yikers! Nonetheless, one day at a time! He was starting to eat the food that I bought for him too, which was a good sign.
After the first weekend, he was no longer having accidents and was feeling more comfortable at his new home. I too felt comfortable giving him free reign of the house since he is not a destructive kitty. He doesn't chew on anything other than his food and he was getting better scratching the scratchpads instead of the carpet. Benzi also likes hiding underneath the bed, but he's doing it less and I'm starting to not care too much if that's where he wants to hang out. Although I still encourage him to come out and play as often as possible by luring him with a kitty treat. :)
It's been almost three weeks at the house and Benzi is fully assimilated into his new life! One thing that amused me is that I bought him a new cat bed that he never used. He then found Duncan's old bed, which was sitting on a table in the guest room with Duncan's ashes in a box and clay pawprint in it. Benzi loves Duncan's old bed, so I figured I'd just let him have it. He now sleeps there often whenever he's not cuddling up in my own bed.
The next big step will be traveling with Benzi, as I'm scheduled to head up to Scottsdale in May and I want to take him with me. We'll see how he handles that, but so far Benzi has been a delight! I'm very lucky to have found him and I already love this kitty a bunch!
