Lucille Dumbrava

Anyone who thinks that getting an animal from the shelter is an inexpensive way to add a pet to one's household has obviously never done it. There are many wonderful reasons to adopt a pet from a shelter - saving lives, supporting the care of abandoned or discarded animals, bringing new joy into one's home, etc., but the cost factor is usually not a major one of them. I know. All but a few of my cats have been shelter animals, a few were throwaways, and none has ever been purchased from a store or a breeder. But, my two new cats have pushed the cost of adoption out of sight.

They came home with me and within a day, both were at the vet's for their checkups. That was free, provided by the shelter as a perk for paying the bargain price of $150 (It was take one for $100, two for $150 - I have the feeling the price kept going down with the number of cats you took home.) What has happened since was not gratis. Smudge (nee Mr. Jingles) and Sassy (nee Tuffy) both had Giardia, and the treatment for that, including a new bag of litter daily, went on forever. Sassy also had a viral infection in her eye which proved nearly intractable. The good news - it finally cleared up. The bad news - it's now in her system and pops up frequently. Ka-ching. She also passed it to Pansy. The most recent 6 week bout included five vet's visits and multiple bottles and tubes of medication. The vet finally took pity and began doing the visits pro-bono.

And then there was the patio problem. This was Sassy, whose escape prowess makes her a rival to David Copperfield, the Amazing Randi, and the master himself.

I have an enclosed patio, surrounded on three sides by the house and on the fourth by a six foot wooden fence topped with an additional two feet of lattice. It is a perfect playroom for the cats with shelves to climb on, carefully selected plants and a box of grass to munch, a nylon two story cat condo with doors and windows and perching platforms and several sleeping areas. Of all my cats, only Tuffy had ever even thought about climbing the fence, and one shout discouraged her from ever trying again. Within a week of being released from Giardia quarantine, Sassy met me at the street as I was parking the car. Turns out Taffy was semi-feral. Panic! My cats do not go outside - ever.

I called the handyman, and for something over $600, he put gopher wire all around the exposed area, ending at the roof. The result is a little like being in a huge cat carrier, but anything for my babies. Within days, I started getting phone calls from the neighbors that Sassy was walking up and down the roofs at all hours of the day and night. Impossible. I had just fenced it all in, hadn't I?

The roof of the patio consists of a canvas awning and above that, there is a slat roof with slats about three inches apart. It turns out she was climbing up the fence, onto the canvas, and then squeezing herself out through the slats. Sweet!

For another $350 plus, the delighted handyman came back and installed gopher wire over the entire roof. Perfect. If I got him to put a handle on top, the whole thing would look just like the most expensive carrier I own.

A week later, I was telling a friend about this, and he cheered me up by telling me a story. He knew some people who had a similar problem, and who solved it the same way. They were puzzled when the cat was seen walking down the street a few days later. Turned out the cat climbed up through the fireplace and up the chimney!

Lucille Dumbrava is a retired Teacher/counselor whose love of cats and love of writing started when she was a child. Many of her stories about the cats in her life have been collected in a book entitled CatHouse, now available from www.bookstandpublishing.com, Amazon, Alibris and local Northern California bookstores. You can also order directly from Lucille. She can be reached at Email