Here is a story from one of my friends about her two cats -
The Tale of Two Kitties
Two years ago, after our much loved cat of 19 yrs. had to be euthanized because she was terminally ill and suffering from cancer, my husband & I adopted two cats from a no-kill shelter.
One was 11 yrs. old at the time we adopted her. She is a "blended" calico. (Her colors run together and are not distinct like Tiger Lily.) She had been abandoned at the shelter two months earlier and lived in a room for shy kitties. After visiting a bit, I realized that she was traumatized and hiding by staying curled up in a basket, on her side with her paw covering her head trying to ignore what was happening to her. I picked her up and she gave a weak protest. She was very gentle and obviously used to people. My heart went out to her and she was one of two cats we ended-up adopting that day. When we took her home, while she was scared initially, of course, we could see she quickly realized that she was in a home and she adapted very quickly.
Not knowing her name, we called her Sweetie because she would come up to us and repeatedly and very firmly push her nose under one of our hands until we started petting her (she still does this). She learned her new name very quickly. Her favorite "activity" in life (aside from eating and having a clean litter box) is to curl up next to us on the bed or sofa, get petted, and purr contentedly. About twice a day she has what we call her "happy time" which is when she wants to play either by herself with a catnip toy, or with one of us using a small laser dot that she loves to chase. In many ways she is very kittenish despite her 13 years.
All the cats that have graced our home over the years have had unique quirks. Sweetie's is that she'll use her paw to pat the water in a water dish and then lick the water off her paw. I've never seen a cat do this before her!
When we first took her to the vet, she weighed only 6 pounds! The vet said she had lost one-quarter of her body weight. Once she realized that she had a new home, she started wolfing down food and soon was back to a healthy 8 pounds.
The other cat we adopted already had a name - Lukie. He had had a rough beginning in life. Originally adopted as a feral kitten, his owner apparently didn't have experience in how to treat animals and abandoned him at the vet's when he was 5 months old (at that gangly teenage period when a kitten is no longer a cute cuddly ball of fuzz). The vet gave him to the shelter. Lukie spent the next year of his life living in one room at the shelter, the room for shy cats. My husband fell in love with this handsome young gray tabby and I fell in love with "Sweetie", so we ended-up taking home two cats instead of one, as we had planned!
Lukie was a nervous cat. Judging from his behavior, we're pretty sure he had been abused by his original owner. We didn't start out right with Lukie and rushed him in trying to get him adjusted to his new home. He would hide and growl because he was scared. We were able to isolate him in a bathroom and I worked with him every night to slowly get him used to me and to gain his trust. Gradually he came to trust me and let me touch him. Then we gradually let him and Sweetie get used to each other and gave him more access to parts of the house.
He actually was starved for love and attention and he LOVED to be petted and played with. He was just scared to trust and accept a loving touch from people, since that had not been his experience before.
Now he is a wonderful, loving companion pet. He has always been very good with his claws and never uses them on us. Fortunately he only likes to claw on smooth carpeting and he uses the scratching posts we provide for him, not the furniture. (With previous cats I discouraged them from scratching on furniture by dusting flea powder on furniture that they wanted to scratch, and rubbing catnip on posts that they were allowed to scratch, in order to attract them to it.)
Lukie loves to play, run around the house, chase heavy-duty string cords that we pull, pester his "sister" Sweetie, bat around balls and catnip toys, and especially to run up and down his cat "tree" (tall scratching post with three different levels).
Getting the "tree" was the best thing we ever did for Lukie. We rubbed it with catnip to encourage him to explore it and that worked very well. It functions as a kitty jungle gym and lets him work off some of his energy by playing on it. We just got it a few months ago and it has made a big difference for him. He now has a place that he knows is his. He loves to lay in the top part and be king of the roost over all he sees. He can also see out the window from his perch. Sweetie only rubs against the bottom part but otherwise ignores it. She came to us declawed; she can jump but she can't climb, so the jungle gym is all his. I've put her on it at different times but she just jumps off and goes and settles on the sofa or on the pillow in the window.
We are so glad we adopted both of these cats. They are wonderful, entertaining, and best of all, loving companions.
People think cats are aloof. But all of our cats have been very loving and affectionate. They, including Lukie, show affection by greeting me at the door when I come home, come when I call, "talk" to me, follow me around the house, like to play and be petted. Even Lukie now lets me pick him up and carry him around a bit, nuzzles my face, purrs loudly when petted, misses us when we're gone, and likes to get into a bit of mischief so he can get attention. Most of our cats have been "puppy dog" cats, but still have cat independence. We have had dogs in our lives too, and we love them tremendously also! At one time we had 2 dogs & 2 cats, which was plenty for us. But given our work schedule, we are not home enough to give a dog a good life, so we are happy to give cats a good home. They enrich our lives tremendously. - Nancy
I like to think she is laughing at something - maybe she is laughing about something we do which she finds amusing.
