Over one month of Charlie!
Some small updates first:
I got him some more toys at the grocery store and he really likes some of them! He'll actually play with them on his own! He thinks the balls with jingly bells inside are interesting but not enough to do anything with them. Not much interest in the catnip ball, which was odd since he seemed to like catnip when I sprinkled it on stuff previously.
Charlie got the zoomies for the first time and wanted to run around! I've also played chase with him a few times and he enjoyed that. He even chased me back twice. Play-chasing cats is very hit or miss; some of them like it, some of them find it very stressful. My cat Seneca is both... he has a lot of fun at first, but gets stressed out after a few minutes and needs to hide for real.
Yesterday I vacuumed the rugs in the basement. First encounter with a vacuum cleaner! He hid behind his hiding pile while it was on, and came right back out for more pats and attention when it was done. Very brave!!
He continues improving slowly at not attacking my hands. He really wants to wrestle, though. He's still getting cleaner over time and is mostly free of that icky texture, although not quite. His tail is still kinda dirty and I keep forgetting to bring scissors down to trim some of the remaining mats in his fur. I think there's two. His goopy eyes seem to be improving a little bit, too!
Bigger updates: He had his clinic appointment! Before the appointment I gave him a small amount of gabapentin that I don't think did anything.
He absolutely freaked out in the car, wailing and crying and rolling around in the carrier. I've never heard a cat hyperventilate like a human having a panic attack before, but he did that a few times. Alarming. He settled a bit when the car was parked, though still cried a lot. He was unhappy and thrashed around while getting his shots, but it was a normal-cat amount of thrashing and unhappy - no hissing, growling, snarling, biting, etc. Nobody got hurt, which is the important thing.
He tested negative for FELV, FIV, and heartworm! He's been microchipped and got the core vaccines besides rabies (which he got when he was TNR'd). We kinda weighed him - I put the carrier with him in it on the scale they had. 22 pounds! I'm not sure how much the carrier weighs, but yeah. He's a big boy. Probably around 18-20. Which, if you don't know, is very large for a cat if they aren't a Maine Coon or other super-large breed. I think he's getting a bit chubby - hard to tell with all that fur - but mostly he's just got a big body.
The clinic experience was bizarre. So Petco has this "vetco" service where you can get vaccines and tests done in the store and it's relatively cheap - you don't pay an appointment cost, just for whatever specific services you want - so my expectations weren't high. Still... the little room they had for the appointments didn't have a door. It was just open... aren't they worried about animals running off?? And there was no waiting area or even any chairs set up so everyone waiting had to just awkwardly stand around in these really small aisles. I was worried that the noise and dogs and everything would really freak Charlie out, but he hung in there okay.
I gave him a ton of treats when we got home. He surprisingly didn't need any alone time; he was just fine as soon as I let him out of the carrier, happy to get pats and treats and then took a nice long nap on the couch.
I feel really happy. I feel like we've earned his trust. He hasn't been anxious or insecure at all, which is kind of a miracle considering the circumstances. I really thought we'd be slowly socializing this guy over the course of a few months. But he is fully ready to be inside and at home with people. He has a big heart.
With the testing and shots out of the way, we are entering the "find him a new home" stage!
C is interested but not sure he'd be a good fit and wants to spend more time with him. Also, serendipitously, someone in one of B's groupchats happened to ask if anybody had leads on cats for adoption, so they'll be coming by to meet him as well at some point. A promising start to be sure! We haven't even posted him anywhere and we've already got two potential homes for him! Gonna hold off on making any posts until C and this other person have had their meets and such.
I'm trying not to get too weepy about it, but I'm gonna miss him a lot. I've become really attached to Charlie while he's been here... I think I'd be bad at fostering cats, I'm too possessive and easily overwhelmed. I wish we could keep him, but alas we cannot.
I think that's everything, more or less!