After Friday’s post about my black and white cat impersonating a chameleon on my blanket, I was reminded about an email I sent to a friend back in November about that same cat. I’ve copied it here with a few edits for clarity. I’m sure you’ll appreciate it as much as my friend did:

I have a hysterical story that YOU will appreciate. It is kind of long, so bear with me. It starts with our rental agreement here – I think I told you that we got $25 off the rent each month for taking care of the landlord’s cat. Well, the cat turned out to be mean. He bit my husband and I both, he attacked our dog, etc. Just a mean, biting cat. We were trying to give him the complete benefit of the doubt, though, since his world had been so turned upside down. He didn’t even get to meet us before we moved in, he wasn’t around that day we unloaded. But he was in the house when we arrived to live there, and we fed him treats, and generally tried to help him adjust. Our landlord expected to come visit in early November, and pick him up then to bring back to her new state with her.

Then the landlord got a second job, one that requires travel – sometimes international travel. She decided that even though the cat could still live with her, leaving him with a cat sitter literally 2-3 weeks out of every month wasn’t the best situation for him, but we confessed to his personality issues and explained that we would be unable to keep him here with us. So she advertised for a new home for him. The new people came and visited him, loved him, and took him along with them. The landlord was sad, but we were rather relieved not to be bitten anymore.

About a week previous to the cat going to another home, another cat had started hanging around. He avoided the landlord’s cat, but looked so skinny and pitiful that I started feeding him. He was a real lovebug, coming to meet me whenever I was in the backyard, and just purrrrrrrring as I pet him. After rehoming the landlord’s cat, we started letting the stray cat indoors, introducing him to the dog and our two current cats, and thinking about advertising to see if he had an owner or not.

So the landlord arrived today. I came home from some errands and she was on the back deck, cuddling the stray cat. I smiled and asked if cuddling a stray gave her a needed kitty fix. She looked at me funny and said “This is my cat – did he run away from his new home?”

O. M. G. I GAVE AWAY THE WRONG CAT!!! It took several astounded back and forth questions to ascertain that yes, I really had done exactly that. I had rehomed the neighborhood stray tomcat to an unsuspecting woman, and the landlord’s cat was still there, being fed as if he was a stray! Humiliations galore. On the positive side, I had fed him so much that he was a healthy weight now, when he had been underweight before. So that is good. And he is still the same loving, cuddly cat that she remembered, so his personality hadn’t been affected. She’s not angry about the mix-up, because the general physical description she gave DID fit both cats. Black-and-white, Zorro mask over the face, etc. The only thing that didn’t match was his personality, and we assumed it was because of the owner change. But I tell you, next time I cat-sit for someone I want at least a PHOTO of the cat I’m supposed to care for!

So long story short, I may have a third cat now. We’re still working out the details. She likes that she can see him whenever now, but didn’t expect to be financially responsible anymore. So we have that to work out.

You may continue laughing – I’m sure you started several paragraphs ago!  I don’t make mistakes like that! But apparantly I did. It’s like something out of the Twilight Zone.