CATALINA - A PETFINDER HAPPY TAIL

[twigfrosty]

Adopted from Unconditional Love Animal Rescue and Placement, CA.

Catalina
from Rhiannon of Santa Cruz, CA

I had only been in the dorms of UC Santa Cruz for two days when I knew I wanted to move out the next year and get a cat. The transition from living in a house filled with pets to a small 8x10 dorm with no animals just about drove me insane. I really wanted a cat!

Before I jumped into the responsibility of being a pet owner, I wanted to analyze the cost of adopting and caring for a cat on my own. That lead me to Petfinder.com, where I started searching for cats in my area. I wasn't looking for a pet, I was just checking out adoption fees from various shelters and groups, trying to gather data I needed to make a decision about adopting.

That's when I saw Catalina. She had been young when she was rescued from a shelter by Unconditional Love Animal Rescue and Placement. After being adopted for a couple of years and being a loving family cat, she was returned to because her owners could not care for her anymore. Due to the stress of being abandoned, she started to obsessively groom herself. Something in her little face in her picture or her story stuck with me and I found myself checking back to Petfinder.com for months on a daily basis to see if she was still there.

As the school year ended, I started to become more and more worried that someone would adopt Catalina, who I now identified as my cat. I wasn't worried about expenses anymore, I wasn't worried about adoption fees, I just wanted to give this little girl a forever home filled with all the love and attention.

That's when I wrote Unconditional Love and Animal Rescue a huge email, explaining how Catalina and I were meant to be. Rescues are more particular about who they adopt to and I was worried that the unstable life of a student wouldn't go over well with the head cheese in charge. As it turns out, I was wrong. Lisa and Catalina's foster mom Pat were totally on board with me adopting this kitty. They recognized that we were meant to be.

Catalina knows too. Even though its her first day in her new home (and she has dealt with the trauma of being dropped off in a new place with strange people and a long car ride from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz), she only hid under the bed for an hour before she came out for cuddles and pets. Right now she's curled up beside me, watching the computer screen and trying to distract me for more scratches behind her ears and purring like a small furry lawnmower. She even reached up to "kiss" me a few moments ago (a little lick on the nose) and it's evident that we're going to live happily ever after!

Information found at http://www.petfinder.com/adoption-stories/index.cgi?story=19456&offset=0&count=

[putnamwitches]

I love these success stories that you put up. There is always room for good information! And it's good to have good information up instead of all the bad! Thanks!