Nemo's example - Stand up for yourself!

Nemo came into my life in January of 2003. Someone in a group I was in was passing a photo around and asking people if anyone was interested in adopting him. The person began to tell a tale that grabbed my heart. Whiskers, his name before adoption, lived with his owner who was quite ill. The man would not be able to care for his cat any longer. The storyteller had hooked me in; I immediately made an appointment to see him. Although, I wondered if Prune, my other cat, would accept him I decided to forge ahead. She would grow to like him. I hate to say she never did.

Anyway, I went to the cat clinic on Benson Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. I lived about 25 minutes away in Brooklyn. He looked kind of ragged in the photo but the photo was really better than what he looked like in person. He was an old cat and certainly not the approximate age of 11, as posted on his sign. I already knew I'd take him before going there anyway. He didn't have good balance but he could walk. I wondered why he didn't look up at me. I thought he was just shy.I was to find out much later that he was blind. I asked the clinic doctor to wrap him up because we were going home.

He was so upset and scared being inside his carrier I felt awful for putting him in there. I promised him I would take him out soon. The 25 minutes home was horrendous for me. I hate to see any animal locked up. When we finally got home I placed him in the bathroom and he immediately went behind the toilet seat where he was at least, I hope, able to relax. I placed a gate by the door because the door would not close all the way to keep the two cats separate for awhile. I lived in a tiny studio in Brooklyn, a old building with very little space for an apartment. The regular one bedrooms seemed palatial to my studio, but alas, they were all taken.

Anyway, after the third or fourth day Nemo comes out of the bathroom with an air of assuredness having finally decided that it wasn't too bad and he'd stay awhile. Prune never ceased to hiss at him and in those close quarters there was little space to hide. Nemo was not backing down though I would often find Nemo laying on my bed and Prune trying to swap him as he swapped back more fiercely than I imagined he could.