Another Tuffy Update

For those of you who may not have been following my Costa Rica blog since I started it (about a year ago), Tuffy is a stray cat who appeared in our Cloverdale, B.C.,  home backyard. We thought Tuffy was a female and also a fighter -  she had scars on her head and one broken fang. Somehow, this cat wormed her way into our home, aligning herself with our cat, Genny (I think cats are expert at this). I was only hoping she was not carrying kittens along with herself.

We all got attached to her - a lot. I tried to find out who her owners might be - delivering bulletins to over 100 of our neighbors, no response. We had her ear tattoo checked out at our vet but it didn't lead anywhere.

When it came time for us to move to Costa Rica, we knew we were bringing Genny with us but to bring another cat was out of the question. Tuffy's next move was going to be to a cat shelter.

To the rescue: my fantastic niece and her equally fantastic husband in Toronto, Ontario! Tuffy flew Air Canada direct from Vancouver International Airport to Toronto International and met her new family, niece, nephew-in-law, great nephew twin boys, and the very lovely resident cat, Rocky (aka Rockstar).

A quick health checkup trip to the vet revealed the surprising news: Tuffy was a neutered male! So I guess we need to review those wall charts showing how the sexes differ. Six months on, Tuffy is living the life of, well, Tuffy ... and here is a very recent photo of The Tuffy living la pura vida in Toronto.

Tuffy Does Toronto!!!

It's official - Tuffy, the cat who moved herself into our home, has been adopted by my niece in Toronto and will be boarding Air Canada on April 21st.

We'll miss her - and her snoring, ability to catch cheese squares in her paws, loud voice, loud purring and her pretty, pretty face. But we are very happy she is going to an excellent forever home.

We bought an airline approved carrier and it's all set up. I watched a video on You Tube about how to prepare it - layers of newspaper, covered by layers of those puppy training absorbent pads, with a final layer of a soft blanket. I'll be attaching plasticized info sheets and a bag of kibble.

We'll freeze water in one of the feeding cups the night before so it will melt slowly and she'll have water.

Tuffy appeared out of nowhere - just showed up on our patio last summer, meowing. She looked scared but hung around and gradually moved in. She has a partial ear tattoo that only tells us where she was spayed. Between my sister and me, we distributed 100 lost cat flyers in our neighborhood and nobody called. We had her scanned for a chip but she doesn't have one.

Here's some pictures of the carrier when we first brought it home, Tuffy (tabby) and Genny (our cat, black). I put catnip inside it initially to get them interested. Genny has taken to having her afternoon naps inside it.