Life After Adoption

Bambi and Socks (adopted in August 2010)

When our son was nearly 4 years old it seemed like a great idea to get a kitten for him to grow up with. But when we thought about it carefully we realised that a kitten would want to play all the time (a bit like our little boy) and because he is at pre-school it would be nice if our kitten had another more like-minded companion.

We decided to adopt a pair and it seemed sensible to get siblings. Because most rescue cats have a rough start to life – it also seemed more humane to keep families members together where possible.

We adopted Socks and Bambi three weeks ago and they just tear around the house tooth over claw, like small bundles of frenetic fur. We are so glad now in retrospect we decided to have two as I am not sure we could keep up with their pace of kitten play!

Both kittens have settled in beautifully and it is like they have always been here. They are healthy and happy and when my son goes to bed – and they have finally run out of steam – they both curl up next to me on the sofa. Bliss!

 

Malakai (adopted in January 2011)

I have an 11 year old blind boxer dog Saky and a 1 year old kitten Sticky (also rescued) who are the best of friends. I had made the decision to adopt another rescue kitten to introduce whilst Sticky was still young enough to be accepting of another playful little kitten in the house.

My main priority was that the kitten I adopted needed to be confident and outgoing, one that wouldn’t be daunted by a very clumsy, extremely cat-friendly big blind dog following after him/her. And that’s when I was introduced by CatRescue to Yankee. Yankee is a confident and completely fearless bundle of grey fur – with a gorgeous little white stripe across his cheeks. Fearless little Yankee was so confident that 1 year old Sticky was terrified of HIM for the first few days!! Sticky couldn’t work out what this little grey purring machine was all about. But after about a week, Yankee was strutting around the house with both Saky and Sticky following along behind him and taking turns licking him. Lets just say that he spends half his time wet from these enthusiastic grooming sessions!!

Yankee has settled in so well, and has had a rename since then to Malakai which somehow suits his wisened old man facial expressions. It is a common occurrence in our household to see the white blur of Sticky tearing around the house, with the grey blur of Malakai hot on his tail, with clumsy old Saky bringing up the rear. The kittens manage to sound like a stampede of elephants which makes it so easy for blind Saky to follow their stampede. The three of them play together until they are exhausted, when Malakai will then curl up with Sticky purring and wanting a preen.

Malakai is technology savvy and enjoys playing “Game for Cats” on my iPad – he is very proud of his top score of 7800 points. If I want to use the iPad myself I often have to wait until he has fallen asleep (often on top of it as shown in the picture). Malakai also likes to watch TV and instigate cat-rumble sessions with Sticky at 1am on my pillow. Life after rescue has been very very good to little Malakai who is loving his new fun forever home.

 

Pierre (adopted in April 2011)

To be honest, we really wanted a dog. But sadly we live in an apartment so we decided to look for a kitten instead. One that was like a dog. We wanted the best of a cat’s traits (independence, cleanliness and a preponderance to curl up on your lap) with the best of dog traits (affectionate, playful and the ability to do cool stuff with a ball). It was a big ask for a pet. Plus we wanted it to be an indoor cat who was already litter trained, microchipped, vaccinated and desexed.

We started looking through the profiles on Cat Rescue.com and we couldn’t help coming back to a little black and white kitten called Pierre. There were two main reasons: one, his profile said he was ‘playful’ and ‘affectionate’ and all the other things we wanted – bingo! Two, he kind of looked like Hitler. In April, we met Pierre and about a week later, we took him home. He was a little scared when we first got him into the flat and no amount of playing with shoe laces or sticks could get him out from under the bed. We were a little worried. But then at 4am, he crawled up onto the bed and lay down on his back right between our faces. Then started purring. He liked us! It turns out that Pierre (now Otto), is everything we wanted and more! He not only catches a tinsel ball in the air better than an AFL player but sometimes he brings it back (well, sort of near you & maybe not on purpose).

He also loves reading (well, walking on the paper as you read it then eating the corners), ‘brushing’ Jo’s hair (putting his hand on her head and licking it) and sleeping in weird positions. He’s hours of amusement and, best of all, he loves curling up on the couch with his humans for a pat and a cuddle. He loves looking out on the world around our apartment and his scratching posts is set so that he can jump up into the sunniest window sill every morning. We’ve bought him more toys than either of us ever had. He purrs like a little outboard motor and also makes a very effective electric blanket. We are so glad we now have Otto in our lives – thank you Cat Rescue!”
Jo & Jon

If you have a Life After Adoption story please email us at website@catrescue.com.au.