-Susan
We adopted Sadie (formerly Deci) from you in February of 2016. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you again, send you a couple of pictures and give a bit of an update.
My partner and I are dog people, in fact, I had never owned a cat before Sadie. We had wanted a dog but didn’t really have the space indoors or outdoors for one. I suggested a cat and he rolled his eyes and said, “I like dogs”. Well I set my mind on a cat and began to look at local shelters to adopt from. I must have looked at hundreds of cats, they were cute but I wasn’t enamored with any of them. I’d send my boyfriend pictures and he’d say things like, “I don’t want a male cat”, “That one looks mean”, “Too fluffy” and “I don’t know if you really want to get a cat”. While telling a friend of my search, she suggested that I look at your website—she told me about the wonderful work you do, much of it out of your own pocket. I loaded your page, read about what you do and when I clicked on the adoption page, there she was. My Sadie. Her name was Deci as she was the tenth rescue that a woman you work with had taken in. She was adorable so I sent a picture to my partner and surprisingly his response was, “Oh that one is cute”. Before the day was out I had emailed you to come and meet her.
The night we came over, you were more than welcoming. We came in and visited with you and your cats. You took us on a tour of the barn and finally it was time to meet Deci. You advised us that she was very, very shy and that she might not come out. You got a feather toy and lured her out from under a couch for our first real look at her. That was it, she was ours. She didn’t even come near us that first night but something about her made our hearts melt. We spent the ride home raving about her and stopped at the store to buy supplies for my very first cat.
A while later, you made that special delivery. You had advised us to provide her one room to stay in for a few days and acclimate—we slept on the couch that first week so she could have our bedroom. She ran under the bed and stayed there. We laid on the floor for hours hoping she’d come from under the bed, talking to her, offering treats and toys—nothing. The only way we knew she had come from under that bed was that she had used her litter box and had eaten her food. Four or five days into the adoption, she came out and sat with me. The next day she played with toys while we were at work. Then, after about a week she came out into the living room. Ever since then, she has been our darling.
She is the most loving, wonderful cat. Cats, to me, have always been independent and stand off-ish. Not Miss Sadie. She is with us all the time and often welcomes visitors by sitting next to them on the couch. She sleeps in the bed with us, usually curling up to sleep on my back. Every morning, she wakes her mama up for breakfast by licking my nose. She makes lots of noises to tell us she is happy or playful or sleepy. She has tons of toys that she takes out of her basket every night to play. My partner comes home at lunch to spend time with her and she waits patiently by the door for him. She comes running from wherever she has been sleeping when she hears my car in the driveway after work. It’s wonderful.
I cannot thank you enough for this blessing. We, and everyone she meets, adore her. She constantly makes us laugh. She makes the worst days better by just being her silly self. She shows us such love. We go anywhere and before I know it, we’re talking about her, “Oh she was so cute this morning while I got ready for work” or “she was so sweet at lunch”. We spoil her rotten and I love it! To think that she was a stray (I believe she was left in a box), it makes me so happy to know she now lives the life of a queen and she deserves every minute of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Taylor
Here is Deci's Petfinder profile. Honestly this will keep me smiling into August.
I have so many other messages from adopters to post, and stories of new cats and kittens as well. I just got out of a workshop on social media at the ASPCA Cornell Maddies Shelter Medicine conference, so I don't have an excuse not to be geared up and going!
Thank you again, Taylor, for giving Sadie such a wonderful home (and a ton of toys as well). And, by the way, you are an incredible writer!
