My mother has been lonely ever since her husband died in 2016. Mark and I talked about getting her a cat for Christmas, so we brought the subject up with Mom last night. She said she wanted our cat, Kimba. She had gotten to know Kimba the year she came to visit us in Wisconsin and then rode back to Oregon in the RV with us.

We didn’t even have to think about it. Kimba hates traveling and she scares our dog, Tucson. She hisses and growls at Tucson and sometimes even takes a swipe at her. Kimba was kind of the baby of the family before we got Tucson and she’s always been jealous of the dog.

So this morning, we took Kimba and all her stuff over to Mom’s house. Kimba is a little schitzy about new situations.

We finally got Kimba out of the cat carrier and set her on the floor in Mom’s living room. The first thing Kimba did was crawl under some of Mom’s furniture where I had a hard time dragging her out. At that point, we began to look for a quiet place for Kimba to safely acclimate to Mom’s house. We managed to fit her cat box, her food dish, and her blankets into the small laundry room, although we did have to drag her out from beside the utility sink cabinet. Once we got her out of there, we filled the space with boxes so she couldn’t get in there again. Then we left her in the laundry room with the lights on. We checked in on her periodically, but she wasn’t eating and she just slept. Finally, I went home for a while.

After Mark got home from work, we took some bags for Mom to use to clean out the cat box into. I called Mom before we headed back over and she told me that she had wrapped Kimba in one of the blankets I’d brought for her and she was sleeping on the couch in the living room. Mark and I stayed for a while and Kimba never moved from under her blanket. Finally, I suggested that Mom sit down on the couch and put Kimba on her lap with the blanket over her.

Mom was so happy when Kimba purred in her lap. She began to feel more hopeful that this could work. Just before Mark and I left, Mom put Kimba in a shallow box in the laundry room with her blankets and actually tucked the cat into bed and put her blanket over her. Kimba is going to be so spoiled!

I am confident that this new arrangement will be good for both Mom and Kimba. Mom needs a companion and Kimba needs a safe place that doesn’t move and where there are no other animals. For Tucson’s part, she is now able to have free range of the RV without fear of the cat. It’s a win/win for all concerned!