The end of an era; tomorrow we hand back the keys to the owner of the house.
Right up to the end, a main concern of mine was the fate of little Tommy, the retreat centre tabby cat. Despite all our efforts, we simply weren't managing to find a new home for him. I hated the thought of having to give him to an animal shelter, where he'd be subjected to a couple of horrible weeks in a cage with other cats, and then put to sleep anyway. Last Thursday, I created a couple of posters - in English and Spanish - and set out to drive to nearby towns where there are charity shops in aid of animal welfare. I hoped that putting up an announcement in that kind of place might catch the attention of the people who were most likely to want to adopt an adult cat.
Sure enough, at the eleventh hour, an English family phoned and came to see Tommy. It wasn't without some crying and scratching, but in the end, dear Tommy was packed into the car and taken off to his new home: a little"finca" - like a farmhouse on two acres of land, just about a kilometre away from Rehoboth.
The story of how it happened is quite interesting. The lady of the family had driven to a nearby town to visit a charity shop there in the hope of finding an exercise bike at a good price. It's an unusual item, so she didn't in fact find one, but she did spot the poster about Tommy. (This was probably the day after I had put the posters up.) Her attention was caught by the fact that I'd mentioned he was a good mouser, because they realised they had some rodents on the farm, and neither their small cat nor their several dogs seemed to have any success in dealing with the mouse problem. I'd also written that Tommy grew up with a dog, so that gave her confidence that he would hopefully fit in fine with their menagerie.
So they came to Rehoboth yesterday to get the cat and when they arrived, there, sitting right in front of the house was an exercise bike!! The bike is Andrew's, but he told them he wasn't planning to take it back to Scotland with him, and that they could have it for free in just another ten days time. What an interesting turn of events: to go looking for a bike and end up with a cat... and to go looking for the cat and end up with an exercise bike too.
I have to confess that, as time was running out, I'd been praying for a new home for Tommy. That prayer has been answered, and now I can only trust that he will settle in well to his new place and family.
