Hello everyone,
I've just posted a picture of Custard, a cat that has worked her way into my heart at the Cat Adoption Team shelter where I volunteer. She's almost 9 years old, a chocolate point/snowshoe siamese mix. The sweetest cat ever, quirky, lively, cuddly; she licked my shoes, buried her head in my armpit when I was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the free roam room she inhabits.
She's been adopted three times that I know of; the first time she was returned was 6 years after she was adopted as a kitten. She was declawed. After remodeling and other upheavels in the household, she began peeing and pooping outside the box, even when given more than one choice in boxes, litters, etc.
People fell in love with her, adopted her, and returned her when she didn't like using the litter box by the washing machine; I hope they tried giving her other options.
The next people kept her for 6 months, then returned her.
I hope and pray that someone will come along that can work with her and give her the calm and stable home that she deserves. My roommate doesn't want me to try, and with the way my health has been going lately, I don't think I'd be up to the challenge in my apartment, which doesn't have the space to give her a few different litter box options.
I watched her go poo in a box with a pee-pad in it; I know she can adapt. The right human just has to come along.
I talked to my supervisor at CAT at length, letting her know how much I wanted to take Custard home with me and discussing the challenges, worrying about how she'd be when I left for a week, even with the best of cat-sitters. After a nice long talk, she assured me that everyone loves Custard, and that the shelter IS her home.
I go in on day's that I'm not volunteering, just to visit her and give her love. Of course the other cats get some of my love, too.
Maybe it's best that I don't take home my very own cat; this way I share my love with many others that can use some loving attention.
Then again, love doesn't divide, it multiplies! One of these days I'll bring home a furry friend.
A volunteer that grooms cats for a living adopted a Himalayan that will need frequent grooming, a couple of fosterers adopted the cats they were fostering. The people that I volunteer with are awesome, and I know there are many people out there just like them.
Thanks to everyone that adopts hard-to-place cats, volunteers in shelters, fosters cats and kittens, and gives loves to their animals.