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I wrote this for Cat Assistance Inc., a local rescue for their newsletter two years ago. Our babies are happy, healthy, and beginning to live a full life outside a cage. For the boy, this is the first time ever.
THE BOY IS JANE AND THE GIRL IS CHARLEY
We lost our Dusty at sixteen-and-a-half after five years of intensive home care; then, a month after Dusty departed for the Rainbow Bridge we became ‘hospice mommies’ to Cecil when his 90-year-old human companion passed away. A short sixty days later, Cecil succumbed to CRF and we were heartbroken all over again. We mourned, we rested, and we decided once more to get out there and adopt.
We did not care what color, what breed, or how old the cats were but after the stress of dealing with Dusty and Cecil, we did want a fresh start with healthy animals. In March my husband and I went to Cat Assistance, Inc., hoping to find a pair of cats to adopt after three lonely months of having no feline companion.
Gerry and I had both been to Petfinder.com online to look at pairs of cats specifically, and when we made our appointment with Cat Assistance we knew that we would not leave the shelter without taking two kitties home. After speaking with Sarah on the phone, Gerry and I had tentatively decided that we would take a mature pair of siblings that needed to stay together.
All our pre-planning flew out the window when we walked into the first room at the shelter. A hunky, silver-gray tuxedo cat seemed to recognize my husband at once. He assertively trilled a questioning “prrrrt?” across the room and waited intensely for a response. I heard my husband catch his breath.
“Who’s this guy?” said Gerry, oblivious to the swirl of other adoptable cats milling around his legs.
He could not take his eyes off the only cat in the shelter that wasn’t begging for his attention. “This guy” was commanding all our focus from the other side of the room. He was the Rhett Butler of cats, a feline George Clooney, the animal equivalent of Cary Grant -- suave and playful, yet full of soul. You could tell that this kitty had been burned by love before but there was something about Gerry that made him begin to believe again. He was ready to trust in love. From across the room, they clicked.
Sarah said, “I love when that happens.”
We went into the larger cattery to see the pairs that were featured online, but I know when my husband falls in love… Although we ‘interviewed’ another half-dozen cats, Gerry’s big heart was still in that first room.
You will not be surprised to know that Sarah is as good at reading body language as any cat and she suggested that we go back to the first room and have another visit with the fellow who seemed to think he knew us.
I believe it was for my benefit that Sarah reminded, “They ALL need homes. If ANY two of them get a home today, I will be very happy.”
Gerry suggested that I see how his big boy interacted with me while Sarah filled us in on his background. She said that this fellow’s name was Jane and that he had come to her from another shelter in Brooklyn because he was scheduled for euthanasia. She said that he had been with her for fourteen months and in all that time; he was only taken home once, and then only for two days before the person brought him back for lack of friskiness.
I picked him up but he was uncomfortable being handled so I put him down right away. He didn’t like it that I was so familiar as to pick him up without his permission. When he regained his footing, he suddenly whirled and grabbed my hands in his paws. He held both hands and applied his teeth, but he was careful not to bite or claw.
I knew better than to behave provocatively with an animal I’d just met, and yet I had done just that. I’d made a beginner’s mistake and it was my fault. My entire fault. I did not struggle but spoke calmly and softly to him until he was ready to release me. When he let me go, I apologized. Say what you will, I have always found that cats appreciate a sincere apology no matter who was really at fault or who started it.
To me it makes no sense to reject an animal that so clearly chooses you, and “Jane” had clearly chosen Gerry. I stood there tearing up while watching Gerry beam at his baby boy when I heard a light soprano “meow” at hip level to my side.
I looked down to see a beautiful little girl with a dainty triangle of pink for a nose. Her very fine white fur, graced by a copper-colored mask and cape that ended in a ginger-striped tabby tail, was the softest I’d ever touched. With great charm she beguiled me with her purr-song while sizing me up from the arm of a couch. When I said hello to her, she thrust her lovely face into my palm and my heart melted into a blob of quivering acquiescence. I had been chosen, too.
I asked Sarah the kitty’s name.
Sarah said, “Her name is Charley. I don’t know why they gave her a boy’s name in the shelter, maybe for the perfume…she was rescued in Stamford the day after Thanksgiving. She belonged to someone who once cared for her because she had already been spayed when we found her. She tested clear for leukemia and aids twice, and we also had her teeth cleaned.”
Sarah also said that there was no way to know the age of either cat, but the vet estimated “Jane” to be about three and “Charley” to be about five, although there was no way to know for sure.
“Jane” and “Charley” have lived with us for almost ninety days now and we have changed their names to Jake and Penny. Whoever returned “Jane” to the shelter because he was supposedly lethargic…LIED! Jake is an athletic dynamo who is highly intelligent, has a goofy sense of physical humor, and such a dense skull that he might pass for a fully armored cat. He is also a big mush-baby who will climb up on your lap to give you a big sloppy kiss on the lips.
One day Penny and I were playing a silly game of string called “Princess Pretty Penny Pittypat Kittycat of Felina”. I don’t know if it was the name itself or simply the alliteration, but when I called her Pretty Penny, her tiny tushie shot up into the air with tail curled and she drenched me with an onslaught of head butts and drool-y kisses. Penny is a sweet dreams cat; she sleeps with her little head next to mine on the pillow. I think that whoever lost her must still be shedding tears over this darling girl. She is Scarlett O’Hara to Jake’s Rhett Butler, Carole Lombard to his Clark Gable, and with a dash of catnip thrown into the mix she becomes a grunge/punk clone of a kitty Courtney Love.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to adopt a full-grown cat, I encourage you not to hesitate. We have had no broken crockery, no dug up plants, no torn down curtains, stained rugs, etc., after Jake and Penny’s adoption because these two had already learned those lessons long before we met them. They don’t have the manic energy of kittens but we don’t have that kind of energy either, so it works out just fine for all of us.
Take good care of the kitties you do have and make sure they have i.d. so they can be returned to you in case they ever get lost. In the meantime, support organizations like Cat Assistance so that perfectly wonderful animals don’t have to wait half their lifetime for someone to come along and give them a second chance.
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Jake
Penny
Jake
Penny
