The following story is a finalist in the Rescue to Royalty Challenge. Three grand prize winners will receive a $250 shopping spree, while a shelter of their choosing will be awarded $2,000 in cash and needed supplies! You can read more stories here!
It had been a year since losing our beloved Mensa cat Pike when we received an email from the Nevada Humane Society about a “young senior cat” who needed a home. Tobey had been in the shelter for over four months and was not coping.
His original mom had been admitted into an assisted living facility and could only take one cat. In one fell swoop, he lost his mom, his brother, his home and everything he knew and was traumatized being away from them. He had begun hissing, spitting, and biting and was placed in quarantine for a month.
After that, he would let female staff handle him but no male staff. He would get sick if he heard other cats fighting in other rooms, so he had to be kept separately. I went down to the shelter (I’m a volunteer) and met Tobey, and he hissed and swatted at me, as well. Undeterred, I spent an hour with him that day and began socializing him and gaining his trust.
After nine weeks, the staff was amazed that I could pick him up and carry him from room to room with no resistance. He came home on June 27 and spent the first few days in his 900 square foot kitty condo. He soon became the very loving and fiercely loyal cat that I enjoy today. He talks to me in the morning to ask for breakfast. He will talk to me every 75 minutes or so to be picked up and sit on my desk whereupon he begins giving me kisses, and then to my lap to be held and rewarding me with more kisses.
At night, I have to sleep on my left side so that he can cuddle up to sleep and hear my heart. If I switch sides, he begins talking, crawls over me and begins licking me until I turn back over so he can go back to sleep. He has survived major surgery to remove a cyst from his pancreas and has recovered to be the same loving cat that he has been since he came home and became a model citizen.
He’s now 18 years, 4 months old and I cherish every day that I have with him.
This story was submitted by Ken Peterson in support of Nevada Humane Society. You can read more Rescue to Royalty Challenge stories here!
