Once Anna decided to rush into the world, Chris and I finalized our decision to go ahead with the cat plan. We didn't talk about it much before hand. I think we had two conversations about it. I kept getting very emotional, so I just wouldn't talk.
The plan was to surrender my cat while I was in the hospital with Anna. Chris would take care of the details, and I wouldn't have to be involved.
There were some issues. Since our local humane society is no longer the de facto drop-off site for strays in our county, they will not always accept surrendered animals. They tried scheduling an appointment for surrender two weeks out. Our nice, neat little plan was collapsing.
Chris called them back to explain the situation to them, how we wanted the cat surrendered before the baby came home. They relented. Chris made arrangements for Adira's medical file to be forwarded to the shelter. He got everything ready for her to go.
Maybe it was a bad idea then for me to go home to have dinner with Ben while Anna was still in the hospital. I was already a hormonal wreck, and I was missing Ben, and Adira missed me. While I sat in the living room eating, Adira was sitting on the back of my chair, licking my face and arms, nuzzling me and being the sweetest cat ever.
I just sat there and cried (kind of like I'm doing now).
Anna was released the next day, so Chris brought Adira to the shelter in the morning. Nothing short of a miracle, my mom answered the hospital phone while I was packing all of our hospital things to go home. It was Chris calling. He was having second thoughts as he drove Adira. I'm sure she was crying and meowing (she hates car rides). I don't know if I would have been strong enough to tell him to go through with it.
He did. And we haven't talked about it. We quickly learned to say "the cat" instead of "the cats." I'm learning to try to appreciate the one we kept, Maisie.
She's just so annoying sometimes... and she's so NOT Adira. But, she loves children and babies and she always uses the litter box, even if it's way past the time it should have been cleaned.
And she's kind of cute, once in a while. Pure white, she has one blue eye and one yellow eye. I just wish she was Adira. I just wish I could have kept Adira. I miss her lots. I hate thinking about what her life is like at the shelter.
