It started with receiving a text from an unknown number.
Thankfully, the unknown number wasn’t telling me who I should vote for in the presidential election.
The text was from my friend’s daughter, who I know, but we had not exchanged numbers.
“I have a friend who is looking for a cat for her mother…Would you happen to have one or know someone?” She was looking for an adult indoor litter trained cat.
Sometimes I don’t know anyone. But when you have many cats (but not too many), over time you people may think you have cat connections.
When I got the text, I knew of two people with a cat (or cats) in need of indoor homes.
A friend with some adult cats that she had rescued recently.
And a coworker had asked me about a month prior about re-homing her cat and still had the cat.
I don’t want to be in the middle of any cat re-homing, so I passed on contact information.
Why I will not be in the middle anymore
Another time I was asked to help rehome a cat, and it didn’t work out.
There were many people in the middle. My friend’s boss had the cat in her garage (a stray cat with kittens which already had homes found for them).
My coworker’s mom agreed to take the cat.
Initially, all the communication was done in a huge chain – The boss, my friend, me, my coworker, and my coworker’s mom.
That was really inefficient! And in the end, the cat escaped the boss’s garage, and the re-homing didn’t work out.
So I decided that was the last time I would be in the middle!
The rest of the cat rehoming story
Since I wasn’t in the middle, I don’t know if my friend’s friend (which turned out to be her friend’s friend’s mother) contacted my coworker or friend with the rescue cats.
After about a week, I got a message from my coworker that her cat was rehomed!
She spent some time with the people who wanted to adopt her cat, and it was a great fit.
She was sad and will miss her cat, but she was happy for her cat to have a new home.
Note: The picture I used for this post, is NOT the cat that was rehomed. Due to the negativity, guilt, and shaming that can come when someone rehomes a cat, it seems for the best for the cat to remain anonymous.
The picture is of Violet (who I rehomed into my home by rescuing her and her kittens from my yard when she was abandoned).
The people connections to get this cat a home:
My coworker, me, my friend, her friend, her friend’s friend, and her friend’s friend’s mom.
Does that make it six degrees of separation for helping a cat?
Heidi Bender is the writer and founder of the Joy of Cats. She enjoys sharing cat information and providing helpful cat tips. She considers herself a cat lady and currently cares for eight cats.