A few weeks ago the young guys living next door adopted a beautiful
black and white long-haired cat... I've seen him lying in the front
window every single day, watching the world go by and he's GORGEOUS!
Alas, they found out that keeping a young and active 9-month-old cat
is a lot more work than they bargained fo (he said that Romeo sits
around crying all day!), and they're getting rid of him. Since they
know we like cats (Tessie's always in OUR front window mewing at
passersby) they asked if we'd take him... I told John we'd offer to
help find him a good home if the guy kept him for a few more weeks,
and I was going to tell him that next time I saw him - but then I saw
the guy walking past our front door with Romeo under his arm!
Apparantly the 'getting rid of the cat' was going to happen
immediately! So I got him to bring it into the apartment to see what
would happen. In short, nothing much... he held the cat and Tessie
came over to look curiously at him, and he looked at her but didn't
show any desire to interact. Silver came cautiously into the room and
again no reaction either good or bad (which is a fairly good sign!
When Tessie came in the front door the first thing she did was hiss
viciously at Scouty and Silver, setting up for feline WWIII...) then I
took him for a cuddle and he was very good for about a minute - then
he decided he'd had enough and showed me his very long claws. So I
grabbed the clippers and turned him over and tried to clip him on my
lap, and he showed me his teeth and said 'no thank you!' I gave him to
John and we clipped him together - we managed to get half his claws
done, then he decided he'd REALLY had enough and started fighting in
earnest... I tried to pick him up again to give him back to his owner,
and he clawed me thoroughly! The biting I could live with - he wasn't
trying to break the skin, just saying 'let me have my way!' but the
clawing was much more vicious and intentional than any of the other
cats have ever been... (and this is after the guy said he was 'very
friendly')

So the short answer is that no, we can't take the chance of taking him
- he's much too free with his claws and teeth and it's too risky for
the other cats, and we don't have any place to isolate him until he
calms down. I don't even mind that he drew blood on me (it was a fair
response to being turned on his back and having his claws clipped by
total strangers!) but I can't have him hurting the others. We could
tell that as soon as he got annoyed with one of them it would require
a visit to the vet to mend the damage, and we just can't afford it!
The guy just carried him off to show him to a friend, and if that
doesn't work it's back to the animal shelter where he was adopted...
they SAID they'd take him back and try and rehome him again and I
really hope that they meant what they said and that he won't be PTS :(

Can we please have some purrs for poor Romeo to go to a RESPONSIBLE
home where they know how to handle him properly and give him what he
needs? He's such a beautiful cat, and if he doesn't get good handling
and discipline he's going to turn into a furry little monster...