J is for Jemma

Today I am going to introduce you all to a cat we used to have. Her name was Jemma and we had her for a couple of months before returning her to the shelter. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this cat.

We were not looking to get a cat at the time we acquired Jemma, but while looking at the cats at the local pet store (like we have a tendency to do), Scott and I both fell in love with how affectionate she was. It seemed like she would be a great fit for our family, and we were told she was good with both other cats and dogs.

Now Jemma was a long hair cat, which is part of my attraction to her, and she was a little bit older and diffidently on the heavy side, as you can tell from the picture. She also had a bit of a stomach, digestion problem and would have diarrhea frequently, just outside the litter box.

I think this problem would have been tolerable if it wasn't for the fact that she had such an attitude problem towards the other animals. She got along ok with the other cats, but she was horrible to our dog Tempe. Tempe is one of the sweetest dogs ever and is best friends with our other cat, so she knows how to play with cats, and Jemma was terrible to her. She would swat and hiss at Tempe whenever she walked by, and at times it seemed like she would go out of her way to find Tempe and be mean to her. Now to humans, she was sweet as could be, which is probably why we waited so long before returning her.

The decision to give Jemma back was a really difficult one for both Scott and I. I felt so guilty for it that I refused to go into the shelter and made Scott do it. Our hope was that we would get to talk to someone at the shelter to let them know what the problem was so that Jemma didn't go to another home where there were dogs and risk being returned once again. However, when Scott gave Jemma back they didn't want to know anything about a reason. All they did was comment on how unhealthy she was due to her weight, which had not changed much since we first got her.

The experience with this particular shelter really jaded my outlook on them, and this is where we had adopted two of our other cats from. We haven't gotten another cat since then, but I don't think if we were looking to adopt another one that we would go through them. It doesn't seem like they cared about matching the cat with the appropriate home.

Anyhow, Jemma was a sweet, yet mean cat, who in her short time with us had an impact. My hope is that she found a good home that fit for her. I imagine her living with an older lady and being a great lap cat.