Some of you know (and some of you don’t know) that we are now a FOUR cat household. I know, I know….it sounds a little crazy and like we are running a cat farm. Well, we are not but the little Tortie kitten sweetie that my hubs found made her way into our Harris hearts minutes after we rescued her from the coyote ruled desert that is our neighborhood. I have waited a while to write this post so that I could report on the successful integration of a 4th cat into a 3 cat household. Now two months later, I can share that Sadie is fully incorporated into the household and it is pretty peaceful around here for the most part. I will post my blog article about how to successfully introduce a new cat to your existing cats tomorrow. But first the story of sweet Sadie, the little kitten who became a Harris cat over the holiday season. It is truly shocking to find a stray in our neighborhood with all of the coyotes. It never happens….except to us, I swear! 
First, how we went from two cats to three and then on to Sadie. Eight years ago we went to the pound to adopt two little boys that our kids named Tucker and Stanley.
They have been very good boys for us and pretty easy to care for. So….when our girl asked for a pet of her own three years ago, we finally heard her case after a full year of her having to prove to us that she was ready for that responsibility. She chose to rescue a black female because she told us that “everyone walks right past the black cats because they think they are bad luck” and with that statement (that is sad but true) she had me and off we went to the shelter find little Lucy girl. See the cute kitten pics at this Lucy’s story link. 
Lucy has also been a good girl for us and boy is her black fur so silky and pretty. Plus we’ve had a lot of good luck since her arrival, so take that any black cat naysayers out there! The myth is simply a mean spirited myth when it comes to black cats and I’ve heard that some black dogs are also ignored. So sad. 
So we were good and done adopting cats for now….so we thought.
And then the first time that we almost became a 4 cat household…..
A sweet boy named Oliver appeared at our front door over a year ago and he acts more like a smart and very affectionate dog than he does a typical aloof and independent cat (although our current household of cats are way more social and affectionate than they are aloof). 
So we took Oliver in and were successful in finding him a good home….twice due to some heartbreaking circumstances that occurred with his first very loving adopted family. You can read that story here. Thank goodness for that because Tucker (who is the same large size of Oliver and looks similar just would not accept him and scratched up his face once). Fostering Oliver was a wonderful and warm experience for our family, but I quickly learned that my heart gets in the way and when he left I teared up. 
So when hubs spotted sweet little Sadie, I was thinking “oh no” to myself and I was wondering how these cats keep showing up at our front door when stray cats are truly NEVER ever seen in our area due to the very high population of coyotes. But hubs happened to look out the window one early evening in October and she appeared. A teeny 1 1/2 lb starving all skin and bones little kitty cat. She was easy to catch because she wanted to be saved and was probably on her last skinny leg at that point so we took her in and had her checked out by the vet that evening.
This sweet kitten had hubs wrapped around her paw within hours of her rescue!
Within a week, she had gained weight and sported the most beautiful coat and markings and the sweetest loving personality. I have since read that torties really bond with their humans and boy has this been true.
Hubs named her Sadie and he was off to the pet store to buy cat toys the day after finding her, so I knew at that point that we were destined to have a household with equal cats to humans. We waited a long time to introduce her to the others and we have been very successful, I’m happy to report. Tomorrow I will give you those tips on how to do that. We took our time to make sure that sweet Sadie was here to stay.
