Goodbye, Laila.

Sorry that I have been MIA the last week. I took Friday off of work to do some shopping for Jaxson's birthday party and my niece's birthday party, then my two little brothers (ages 12 and 10) came over and spent the night at my house because Jayden had been asking to play with his uncles all week long. I also started feeling sick come Friday and it developed into a full-blown head cold and I was working from home on Monday and Tuesday so I didn't get anyone sick. I still sound like crap, but I'm feeling alright. Hopefully I will continue to feel better so I'm back up to snuff by Saturday for Jaxson's first birthday party.

Also, on Monday, we finally parted with our 5 year old female cat, Laila. I adopted her from a shelter back in February 2006 when she was 13 months old on a wild and crazy hair. I was just getting ready to move into my own apartment and wanted my cat, Kimahri, to have a companion. She was really shy and skittish at first and it took her a long time to truly warm up to us and let us be playful with her (and we are talking close to 2 years!) and soon after I got her I noticed she had a urinating problem. The cat peed on everything!! I felt so guilty getting rid of her because I felt it was my responsibility to help find a way to "fix" her. For years, I tried EVERYTHING the vets had suggested to me to no avail. I'd had multiple check-ups done on her and they could never find any physical indicators of what would make her urinate...no UTI's or other infections/irritations. I can't even count how many times Aaron and I would say " I've had it!" or "I'm done!" or "She has to go!". We'd always talk about trying to find a home for her....and yet she stayed. We put ads on Craigslist but no one answered. PAWS wouldn't take her since she peed as she was "unadoptable". Aaron and I didn't want to take her to the pound as they are a kill shelter and I'd hate to have her put down just because she pees, plus the worrying over if she was okay or if she was put down (along with any guilt) would have made me feel just awful. Other than the peeing, she's a wonderful cat; very loving and gentle, loves to snuggle. She's not hostile in the slightest sense of the word. I personally always felt like I was betraying her since it took her so long to get accustomed to us as her family and I felt like I'd be putting her back at square one...and maybe her new family wouldn't be as lenient or patient as Aaron and I were.

After this last week, we'd just had enough. Even though her peeing was unpredictable, she was still doing it. We've caught her on numerous occasions peeing and pooping in our fireplace. We've had to throw out numerous toys for the kids because she's peed on them and ruined them. We've had to replace our bath toys or sanitize them numerous times because she's peed on them. Just last month I found petrified cat poop under Jayden's bed with one of his Legos stuck in it. She's even gone as far as to pee on a pair of my work pants right after I'd taken them off... I mean I literally had put them on the bed right behind me as I was changing into my pajama pants. She's peed on our bed, on Jayden's bed, in the pack and play, on our bath mat, on the carpet....literally anything and everything. She's always marking her territory and rubbing on things, shaking her tail in the air. This week was just extreme though. Within less than a week, she peed on all of the boys' bath toys (again!), a pair of Aaron's shoes (which she ruined and had to be thrown out), and his jacket. I noticed a huge wet spot on the back of his jacket and down the sleeve and I wondered what it could be from since the jacket was on top of our clean laundry pile, and jokingly I said "Is it cat pee? You might want to check...". I could tell just by the look on his face that it was. I'd let my guilt and fear keep her here longer than most would tolerate, but I knew I had to put the health and safety of my kids first. I didn't want to be the stinky house either and we've tried so hard to clean. I've washed walls and done laundry, mopped, steam cleaned, etc. Everything to keep the house clean and smelling good. Aaron and I just couldn't take it anymore.

So, Aaron packed her up and took her back to the shelter I got her from. When we tried to take her there the first time, they wouldn't take her as they didn't have room. Luckily they are a no-kill shelter and they didn't charge us to bring her back. We still had all her original paperwork so they had her information on file. Come to find out that the shelter didn't even know anything about her so they didn't know she peed. Someone had just left her on the doorstep of the shelter with her two kittens and they took them all in. They told Aaron and his mom (since she went with Aaron) that sometimes there are more feral cats that cannot be trained. There's nothing physically wrong with them, but they just cannot or will not learn to urinate where they should. I was comforted by the fact that I was told that they have a great facility with plenty of room for the cats to play. They have a big barn for the more feral cats so they have space. It's a well-kept shelter with lots of volunteers and each cat has there own special cat bed & blanket. Even if she's not adoptable, she can live at the shelter her entire life until she dies of old age. They won't ever euthanize her. So, I feel so much better knowing that she has a good home where she will have lots of people and cats to play with, she will be well taken care of, and she won't be put down.

So, now we are just down to our one cat, Kimahri. He's fully house-trained and doesn't pee on things so we can actually leave our bath mat down now. :) Aaron and I plan to use some of our leftover tax return to have a professional carpet cleaner come in and clean our carpet. I know the smell and stains won't ever completely go away, but we want to deep clean as much as we can. And we feel so much better.