Well, she found an adorable cat at a shelter by her (the same shelter she got Claude from). He had no tail. She went and spent some time with him and loved him. But a few days later when she was ready to make a decision, someone else had already snatched him up.
She was very sad, but I had told her that the shelter I volunteer at was currently running a "sale" on adult cats (because they were so over-run with kittens and the adult cats were severely getting passed over). She had decided she didn't want a kitten and would rather get an adult cat that needed a home, but wasn't as crazy-hyper as a kitten was. We looked on the shelter's website and she found Chester...he has no ears.
But alas, when she went to go check him out, someone had already snatched him up too. (We thought that cats with "missing parts" wouldn't be wanted, but according to the shelter, they actually go pretty fast. There must be quite a bit of people out there who feel bad for these guys).
Well, I had known of a cat that I thought would be perfect for her. The only problem, he looks like Claude did and she said she didn't want another cat that looked like him, it would be too painful. So I didn't tell her about him.
On my way home from work one day I called her and asked what she was doing. Her response: sitting in a kennel...petting some cats.
Apparently she had gone to the shelter and happened upon the puppy room (which is typically reserved for litters of puppies and their moms, but because there were no litters it was being used for cats who liked being by each other). I asked if she was going to be there for a bit so I could stop by and see her, she said yep.
Sometime between us hanging up and me getting there, she decided that she was going to adopt not 1, but 2 adult cats. She just couldn't decide between the 2 that were together and when she learned that they had been there for quite a while and were getting "lost" (as in loosing a reason to live), her bleeding heart self couldn't walk away without them.
The ironic thing: one of the cats (Magic) was the exact cat that I had thought would be perfect for her. He looks very much like Claude and I know that it's been hard for her to see Magic and think of Claude, but I think they are healing each other. Magic is about 6 1/2 years old (that's about how old Claude was) and was getting to the point at the shelter where he was starting to disengage from people and other cats. Since joining the shelter, I've learned that that is a very serious point to be at, one that can be hard for animals to recover from.
I keep telling her how proud I am of her for not only getting another cat, but 2 cats AND adopting them from a shelter instead of buying from a pet store. AND she chose to get adult cats instead of kittens. AND she chose a black cat (which can be sooo hard to adopt out) and a torti (which can just seem kinda crabby and therefore sit at the shelter for a while).
Like I said, I know it's been bittersweet for her and although she is very happy with her new babies, there is a part of her that will always love and miss Claude.
Roberta (appx 5 years young)
Magic (appx 6 1/2 years young)
His resemblance to Claude is uncanny!
Back story on how these 2 got paired up: they didn't arrive at the shelter together and hadn't been in the same kennel until recently. They both had been at the shelter for quite a while and were getting crabby in their old age ;) so they were given the "luxury suites" (aka the puppy room). Originally they were separate but for a couple days in a row, the morning crew came in to find that Magic had jumped over the side divider wall (which is about 6 feet tall) into Roberta's kennel side...where they were snuggling together. After a few days of him doing this, getting put back in his own kennel, and being found in Roberta's kennel again in the AM...it was decided to just leave him over there. He remained over there, with Roberta, until my sister adopted them.
The interesting thing is that if he had chosen to jump forward or to the other side, he would've been able to leave the room completely and hide who knows where (probably in the comfy bedding closet). But day after day he chose to jump into Roberta's side, rather than jump out on his own. We at the shelter thought it was pretty telling of how lonely he had become: he would rather jump into a kennel of a cat he had never met (and didn't know if he/she was friendly) than sit by himself any longer.
These 2 have now taken up residence in the loft of my sister's townhome, yep they have an area for all their stuff that is the size of a small bedroom...and the run of the entire house also :)
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