Everyone, I have no idea what happened. I wrote a long post last night and it seems to have disappeared or it never got posted in the first place and I didn't notice. I'll try to boil it down.
The shelter called me yesterday morning to confirm the cancellation of my appointment, which surprised me. They asked if I wanted to reschedule, and I explained my situation. The woman I spoke to was really nice, and I told her everything that was going on with me. She said that she was happy that I had made the effort to find a guardian for the cat for when the time came, but that also, if I was thinking of adopting now or at a later date, they would happily take the cat back if I could not longer care for it, and I could even leave them in my will to do so.
They told me a little about the cat, that he had been in the shelter since December, was adopted out once and returned. I asked why. The adopter said he had litter box issues and peed outside the box. The shelter lady also told me that the adopter had multiple cats and that this cat had been very stressed out by that. He's been back at the shelter for 3 weeks with no litter box issues. I asked about medical issues, tests, etc. They'd done a full workup on him when he came back and would provide those records. However, not one person had inquired about him (other than me) in the 3 weeks since he'd been back, and they were the only ones who had when he first landed in the shelter.
She also told me that he had an odd thing- he could not meow. His original owner said he'd had an upper respiratory infection when he was a kitten and it affected his voice. I thought to myself, this little cat is broken, I get that. Maybe he needs me. So I kind of got, not guilted, but Im sure manipulated into at least going to meet him.
Got to the shelter (long drive) and they brought me to his double-wide cage and opened the door. He came right over to me and flopped on his side for rubs. I sent about 15 minutes with him and I decided I could not let him stay in that cage any longer, so I agreed to take him.
I went back to the office to fill out the paperwork. Every time another employee came into the office and saw the cat on the computer, I heard a little cheer of excitement that he was being adopted. I thought- either they love this cat or they're trying to dump the demon spawn from hell on me. But I had been told that he was a favorite among the employees there because he was so cuddly.
They gave me a ton of supplies for him, including an actual carrier instead of a box because he was so big. I told them that I still had my old carrier and it was identical, so I would be happy to return it to them next week so they could use it for someone who really needed it. They didn't even charge me an adoption fee. I didn't realize it until after I'd left.
Got him in the car in his carrier, buckled us both in and all of a sudden, he starts meowing his head off. I'm no fool; I'm certain there was no miracle happening there and that someone got their info wrong, but I hate when cats cry in their carriers. My two used to do it all the time going to the vet, etc. and I always felt so horrible about it, like I was traumatizing them. And they were great at the vet. It was just the carrier. I tried putting my hand inside to rub him and he popped out, headed for the backseat, and curled up in my hoodie and just chilled, not a peep out of him.
Got him to my office and asked a co-worker to keep an eye on him while I ran to the pet store to buy essentials (I ordered more stuff from Amazon, which came today) and she told me he cased the joint, then threw himself at her feet for rubs.
To be continued...