Hello!
My Secret is a sweet, shy, beautiful black domestic-medium-hair. She was dropped off at our local shelter when she was only 3.5 weeks old. Poor Secret was a sick little kitten, which made her grumpy. She also had mouth ulcerations and an umbilical hernia, which was fixed when she was spayed. The mouth issues continued, and over the years she has had all but one of her teeth extracted. A shy little girl often bullied by other cats, she developed stress-induced FLUTD as well. Still, she grew into a gorgeous cat, waiting patiently to find someone to take her home. In the meantime, shelter employees and volunteers fell in love with her, spending lunch hours and breaks petting her (when she let them...she can be shy, and moody!).
Meanwhile, I had visited the shelter and was crushing on a super-affectionate fluffball named Uno (the first cat I saw!), who is unfortunately diabetic. After a lot of soul-searching, I determined that I couldn't provide the best home for a diabetic cat, so I looked at the other cats again. This time Secret, who had been very grumpy my previous visit, decided that she'd come investigate this human, and curled up on my lap. It was love! I told the shelter I wanted her, and that's when I learned that Secret had been in the shelter for TEN YEARS. I was stunned. The shelter workers were in tears, so happy that Secret was finding a home, but saying how much they would miss her. I have had a few of them "friend" me on Facebook so they can see how she does! I've also had people come up to me in public: "You have Secret, don't you? We're so happy for her, but we'll miss visiting her!" I feel like she's a rock star!!
She's settled in beautifully in her new home, and sleeps on my pillow every night. She loves curling up on me for naps, although a sunny patch on the couch is also pretty nice. She's still super shy, disappearing when anyone else comes in the house (including my daughter, who primarily lives with me, but also visits her dad often). Secret has definitely decided that I am "her" human!
She had her one-month wellness visit with the vet this morning, and is in good overall health, although her feline gingivostomatitis is costing her the last tooth, scheduled for extraction on Thursday. Poor sweetie had her gums bleeding just from being touched.
But there were no signs of any other problems. (And of course, the vet and staff fell in love with her, too...she got so much petting while she was there!)
I've rambled a lot (I tend to do that), but I'll end with the post that the animal shelter posted on its Facebook page the day I brought Secret home:
"We want to end the day with more wonderful news but before we do we would like to tell you the story about cat # K05-214. Every cat and dog that comes to PAWS gets a clinic number: C is for cat, D is for dog, K is for kitten and P is for puppy. Followed by the year and the number of arrival. Secret came to PAWS as a kitten on November 18, 2005. Kitten 214 of that year. A scared, little grumpy, black kitten that no one wanted. Years went by and the little black kitten grew into a beautiful, long haired cat. Secret has seen hundreds of cats come and go and over the years she developed a medical issue called flutd which stands for feline lower urinary tract disease, a condition that is not life threatening and manageable with simple solutions like a wet food diet, a water fountain to increase water intake and an extra, clean litterbox but it made it very hard for Secret to find her forever home. We never gave up hope that someday she would find that special person but we never would have thought it would take 10 years and one month before that day would come!
So here is that wonderful news; Secret found her special person today and after 3680 days of waiting, she will spend the holidays in her own fur-ever home with her own special person! We wish her lots of love and many, many more years to come! Happy adoption day Secret!"
xoxo
~mk
My Secret is a sweet, shy, beautiful black domestic-medium-hair. She was dropped off at our local shelter when she was only 3.5 weeks old. Poor Secret was a sick little kitten, which made her grumpy. She also had mouth ulcerations and an umbilical hernia, which was fixed when she was spayed. The mouth issues continued, and over the years she has had all but one of her teeth extracted. A shy little girl often bullied by other cats, she developed stress-induced FLUTD as well. Still, she grew into a gorgeous cat, waiting patiently to find someone to take her home. In the meantime, shelter employees and volunteers fell in love with her, spending lunch hours and breaks petting her (when she let them...she can be shy, and moody!).
Meanwhile, I had visited the shelter and was crushing on a super-affectionate fluffball named Uno (the first cat I saw!), who is unfortunately diabetic. After a lot of soul-searching, I determined that I couldn't provide the best home for a diabetic cat, so I looked at the other cats again. This time Secret, who had been very grumpy my previous visit, decided that she'd come investigate this human, and curled up on my lap. It was love! I told the shelter I wanted her, and that's when I learned that Secret had been in the shelter for TEN YEARS. I was stunned. The shelter workers were in tears, so happy that Secret was finding a home, but saying how much they would miss her. I have had a few of them "friend" me on Facebook so they can see how she does! I've also had people come up to me in public: "You have Secret, don't you? We're so happy for her, but we'll miss visiting her!" I feel like she's a rock star!!
She's settled in beautifully in her new home, and sleeps on my pillow every night. She loves curling up on me for naps, although a sunny patch on the couch is also pretty nice. She's still super shy, disappearing when anyone else comes in the house (including my daughter, who primarily lives with me, but also visits her dad often). Secret has definitely decided that I am "her" human!
She had her one-month wellness visit with the vet this morning, and is in good overall health, although her feline gingivostomatitis is costing her the last tooth, scheduled for extraction on Thursday. Poor sweetie had her gums bleeding just from being touched.
But there were no signs of any other problems. (And of course, the vet and staff fell in love with her, too...she got so much petting while she was there!)I've rambled a lot (I tend to do that), but I'll end with the post that the animal shelter posted on its Facebook page the day I brought Secret home:
"We want to end the day with more wonderful news but before we do we would like to tell you the story about cat # K05-214. Every cat and dog that comes to PAWS gets a clinic number: C is for cat, D is for dog, K is for kitten and P is for puppy. Followed by the year and the number of arrival. Secret came to PAWS as a kitten on November 18, 2005. Kitten 214 of that year. A scared, little grumpy, black kitten that no one wanted. Years went by and the little black kitten grew into a beautiful, long haired cat. Secret has seen hundreds of cats come and go and over the years she developed a medical issue called flutd which stands for feline lower urinary tract disease, a condition that is not life threatening and manageable with simple solutions like a wet food diet, a water fountain to increase water intake and an extra, clean litterbox but it made it very hard for Secret to find her forever home. We never gave up hope that someday she would find that special person but we never would have thought it would take 10 years and one month before that day would come!
So here is that wonderful news; Secret found her special person today and after 3680 days of waiting, she will spend the holidays in her own fur-ever home with her own special person! We wish her lots of love and many, many more years to come! Happy adoption day Secret!"
xoxo
~mk
(I have a thing for black cats)
