Nerd Meets Mr. Marshmallow

Hey Nerds,

Long time no type.

I know. I haven’t tippity tapped on the keyboard since MARCH. What the ever-loving hell is up with that? Well, life happened. I offer no excuses and make no apologies. Instead, I’ll share some big news.

We adopted a cat!

OK, so is this a pandemic adoption?

No, not really. I mean, we could have adopted in 2020 and we didn’t. I just wasn’t ready…

First things first. We previously had a cat. He lived to the old age of 16 and was a total asshole. Like the biggest jerk you’d ever met. The vet had him marked as “AGGRESSIVE” on his chart. But at home, he would just chill, keep to himself, and loved to sit on your lap (as long as you didn’t try to touch him). He passed away in June 2019 and it wrecked me.

Fast forward to June 2021. Two years had passed and I was finally ready to consider adding a new furry addition to our household. I had started looking in May and noticed a pair of cats, brothers actually, at the SPCA of Texas who were listed for quite some time. They were gorgeous flame point siamese and a bonded pair. They had some health issues, both were FeLV+, and one had stomatitis requiring the removal of most of his teeth. I shared the listings with my Nerd Partner 4 Life and we agreed that these two cats needed a home and we could give that to them.

I reached out and set up a call with the SPCA vet to discuss their health history. The conversation went really well and we were going to start the process to adopt them both once we returned from a trip. However, the SPCA of Texas couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t get adopted before we returned and when we got back home they were no longer listed on the website. <frowny face>

But wait, you said you adopted a cat…

As it turns out, they weren’t listed because they discovered one of the cats, Oscar, had an unnoticed illness and rapidly got VERY sick. Unfortunately, he was found deceased in his cat condo. They gave me a call and explained the situation. Because they were a bonded pair, they wanted to see how his brother, Mr. Marshmallow, handled not having his brother. So we took a pause. As I expressed to the staff member on the phone, a) we have to do what’s best for Mr. Marshmallow and b) I just felt so much for the entire staff. I knew the pair were staff favorites from all of the interactions I had with various members of the staff and that is heartbreaking.

A week or two passed and I received a message that Mr. Marshmallow wasn’t doing great in the shelter and they wanted to know if we would consider fostering him to see how he did in a home by himself. We agreed to a meet and greet which turned into us taking him home with us the same day–cat foot, litter, toys, and all manner of personal items in tow.

Mi casa es su casa

Immediately from opening up the cat carrier, Mr. Marshmallow made himself at home. After a period of exploration, he found a perch up on top of a bookshelf and it became his favorite spot.

The SPCA also provided with his personal items a photo of his brother, Oscar, that they had hanging up in their shared room at the shelter. To honor Oscar, we hung the photo up here in the house so that he was also a part of our family.

Was it all sunshine and roses? Nope. Mr. Marshmallow is a jumper and a climber. We had to adjust several shelves and other surfaces in our house so either items he could knock off were moved or the shelf is completely blocked so he can’t jump up there. The key objective was to encourage surfaces/furniture he can jump up on and consistently remove him from places we didn’t want him to explore. Does he still sometimes get up on the kitchen counters? Yup. But not nearly as much.

He also is an INCREDIBLY affectionate cat. Like the most loving, talkative, belly rub seeking cat I’ve ever seen. I’m fairly certain he has a serious case of FOMO and constantly wants in on the action. With that, he consistently wakes me up between 6:30-7:30am for food and pets. Do I love it? Not so much. Am I getting a lot more done in the morning? Silver lining!

And then he was ours

After about two and a half weeks, we knew it was time to make him part of the family. Done completely over the phone, we adopted Mr. Marshmallow and he’s now our furry little feline nerd. It was quick, painless, and just in time so we could board him at the VCA before a trip. (It’s important to note that when you are fostering you enter an agreement with the shelter. Among other things, we agreed to not place the Mr. Marshmallow in third party care while fostering.) Because he’s FeLV+, he requires isolation from other cats and his own dedicated play time. With only two teeth, he is on a wet food diet. Because all of that, I wanted to make sure that he was properly cared for during our trips. So glad that we have the VCA close enough to care for him when needed.

Fun Fact: a FeLV+ positive cat can live a super happy life. You just have to take extra special care of them. Mr. M requires exams every six months, as well as dental appointments with a feline dentist (it’s a thing!). We have to watch for signs of poor grooming, changes in the color of his gums, as well as changes in bathroom and general behaviors. But since we have no other cats and plenty of time at home, it was a perfect fit.

As you can see, things are going well. So happy we decided to adopt (not shop) for our new furry little member of our family. We’re so lucky we found him (even if he did demolish two of my house plants) and are honored to help give him the best life possible.

Please consider adopting if you’re looking to add to your families and donate to your local animal shelter. If you would like to donate to the SPCA of Texas, you can do so here.

Cheers,
Head Nerd