When my son was 10, we decided it would be a good idea to adopt a cat. My only condition was it had to be litter trained already. We found a no-kill shelter 25 minutes away and headed off. I should have known when the sign on the door said Two for One Special – Today Only I was in trouble.
The shelter looked like a home, with the cats hanging out in an area up three stairs. Nursing moms and kittens were in cages, and there were at least 20 roaming free. Then the hard part… deciding which one would come home with us. The petting and the purring, the looking, the petting. He chose Orphan, a male tabby.
And then he saw HIM and started laughing. An orange and white cat sitting on the toilet (lid down) in the bathroom. Think 11-year-old humor. “Mom, he’s just like Mac!” (deceased grandparents’ cat). The spitting image, along with the same semi-aloof (but not really) attitude of “Well, took you long enough to get here. Now are you taking me home, or what?” Greater forces seemed to be at work here, as we both needed that connection with his paternal grandparents. I couldn’t say no. Niles came home with us also.
Sometimes the Animals Choose Us
Fast forward some months. My son wanted a cat to go back and forth between his dad’s house and mine. Long story, but back to the shelter we go. There was a calico cat, Sprinkles, who approached my son for petting and even semi-wrapped herself around his neck when he sat down. Of course, she was our choice. The staff said this was the first time Sprinkles ever willingly went near a male human; she’d usually scoot up to top of cat tree when approached.
I share this story with you to remind you of the gift to our lives of an adopted or rescued pet brings. Whatever their lives were before, these three cats were bedrocks and lifelines over the years for myself and my son. It was Niles who was featured in my first pet portrait ever. Snuggling with Sprinkles helped my son journey through some tough preteen and teen years; Niles was my comforter and neck warmer as I went through chemotherapy and radiation. And Orphan, well he was our hunter, leaving us “gifts” on the kitchen floor.
We may rescue an animal from a shelter, yet they often also rescue us.