Shelter Cats and Redemption

Just like that, four months have gone by since Tucker came to live with me. Four months.  Crazy how time just flies, does it? It's already July.  In the blink of an eye, it'll be the holidays and we'll be shivering instead of schvitizing. Yes I used the word SCHVITZ in a blog, I'm a jewish kid from Brooklyn, I'm entitled. We don't sweat, we schvitz. So how is Tucker doing? To be honest?  Amazing. I have never seen a cat take to home life so fast and so seamlessly in my nearly 2 decades of cat ownership.  He's so integrated into the family it's like he's been here 4 years instead of 4 months. Needless to say, I share a TON of pics of the Tuck-Man (as Ashley likes to call him) on my personal Facebook.  Everyone seems to love seeing pics of Tucker, whether he's looking out the door or window, cuddling in my lap,  or having one of his daily "shit fits" that would make Tyler proud. Yet, despite the love of Tucker pictur...

My colleagues at work know me to be....a major cat lover. A crazy cat lady? Whatever they call it, they all know....I love cats.  On my desk in my office are photos of: Tyler, Tiger, and Jackson.  On my wall is a calendar I made last year with photos of my cats. The background on my desktop of my MacBook Pro is a very recent pic of Tucker sleeping. Get the picture?  I'm a cat person. Anyway, one of my colleagues recently recommended I check out a little film called Kedi. "Watch the trailer," he said.  "It's right up your alley." Kedi?  That's Turkish for.....you guessed it. Cats. The trailer was....needless to say.....adorable. YouTube Red acquired the rights to stream this movie, which was in theaters in late 2016 early 2017. Apparently it's also the third highest grossing foreign language documentary ever. I mean, it's about cats, no wonder! With all this in mind, Tucker, Sophie, Ashley and I curled up together to check ou...

Tyler would have been 18 this coming Friday, June 9th. Eighteen. Here comes the silly jokes.  Ready? Tyler would have been old enough to vote! Tyler would have been old enough to go to college! OK, I'm done.  Still, imagine Tyler in a voting booth? "Sir, do you have your ID?" "Meow?  Chirp?" I'm sure he would have voted for Hillary.  He was always quite liberal. At any rate, as I've said before: do I know his ACTUAL birth date? No, I do not. Since I adopted him, as readers of this blog know, on December 9th, of 2000, and I was told he was a 1.5 year old cat, I back-dated him to June 9th, 1999. Back-dated. What is he, a tax return?  I really shouldn't blog while drinking coffee with too much sugar.  WHEE! Happy eighteenth, old man. Hard to believe you're gone almost 3 years.  It's still not quite the same without you, but I know you're proud of the job Sophie is doing in your old slot as alpha cat.  You'...

I was all prepared to blab on and on about life with Tucker. However, how can I blog, and blab, about something that's only just begun?? I am two months in to what is already a fabulous life with my new cat.   My Tucker.   The Tuck-Man.  He has exceeded my expectations in every way.  Our bond is already a strong and amazing bond, and I never expected that so soon after saying goodbye to Jackson. You know what they say about life while you're busy making other plans, right? So, rather than blog, let's just show you some of the great pics I have of life, thus far, with the Tuck-Man. At first, Tucker hid mostly under the bed: Every day I would peek in on him, feed him, and talk to him.  Mostly reassuring talk, making sure he knew that he was home and that he was part of the family now.  Almost immediately he would let me pet his head, and it did not take long for the purring to begin, and what a purr Tucker has! Slowl...

Today is Sophie's seventh birthday. Seven? Already? She doesn't look a day over 5. To say she filled the one and only Tyler's shoes is an understatement.  She not only filled his shoes, she made them her own. I never, ever thought I would find a cat so capable of taking over after Tyler's death. Never. Yet, there she was.  All bright eyed, bushy tailed, and eager to please and steal my heart. That she did. I simply could not imagine life without her.  She's an amazing cat, but then again we always think our cats are amazing don't we?  She's better than amazing: she's the matriarch of the family.  How she reaches up when she wants a hug and to sit on my shoulders as we look out the front screen door together.  Her loud meow when she wants food, how she always keeps me company when I shower, how utterly amazing she was through Jackson's illness and passing.  How she INSTANTLY took over Jackson's lap cat duties, as if she kne...

Thursday, March 2nd. Today was the day!  Tucker was coming home!  I was brimming with anticipation. I wanted the day to fly by! We had planned on leaving work at 4 to head straight to the shelter to bring Tucker home. Finally, 4pm rolled around and I rushed out of work.  I simply had to stop at the same pet supply store I had stopped in 2000 to get some extra cat food and a special toy (just as I had done for Tyler) for my new boy. He needed a welcome home present after all. In I walked into the main entrance of Little Shelter promptly at 5pm. "Hi, I'm here to take Ronald home" I proudly exclaimed, feeling on top of the world. Literally everyone at the front desk lit up and beamed right back at me. "Go right on back to the cattery, and THANK YOU!" "Oh, you're welcome.  I adopted Tyler from here in 2000" I repeated, thinking that this time they'd remember the old man. "Oh, that's nice.  We love repeat adopters." T...

The ladies at the shelter were all too happy to have us come back to spend more time with Ronald. After a brief visit to Target to pick up a new litter box (and a snack for me, I was back at Little Shelter within the hour.   This time.......they let us walk right back to the cattery.  We were high rollers this time! "Hi we're here to show our son Ronald, I just filled out an application to adopt him," I proclaimed proudly. "Oh, go right on back."  I was an adopter.....again.  God that felt great.  I was an ADOPTER.  I was giving another shelter cat a chance at a forever home, and from the same shelter I got Tyler from.  Aside from sex, there is no better feeling on earth than adopting a cat from a shelter.  Might be even better than sex, but then again I'm getting old. I entered the cattery for the second time that day. For the next two hours, I spent time with the cats, and Ronald.  I found Ronald just where he had been whe...