Tina,
It was one year ago today that my world changed. As I look out the window with several inches of snow on the ground, I can’t help but think that a year ago today it was 70°. I was at home and had been thinking of adopting a cat. I decided it was such a nice day that I would take a drive all the way out to Ward Parkway. As I looked at all the wonderful cats you had that day, there wasn’t any that caught my eye. I was about to leave and you asked, “is there someone you want to look at?” Charlie had her back to me the whole time and I had not seen her face. You took Charlie out and that was the end of it for me. Funny, I told myself before I set out, “I am just going to look.” Whatever. I was going through a divorce and started crying as I held her. I knew she was the one for me.

One year later, my place is constantly covered in cat hair. I have to put my black pants on last and still lint roll before I get out the door. I now vacuum my place once a week and de-hair my couch every month or before company comes over. But, I come home about 5:15 pm and Charlie is at the door greeting me with a meow. I live on the second floor and she loves to go out on the balcony and watch the world.. When my alarm goes off at 6:00 am, I know that Charlie is at the end of my bed waiting for me to give her morning love. She sleeps at my feet and knows when I am half asleep or ready to get up and then she comes and sits on my chest then rolls over with her feet in the air as I rub her belly watching the morning news. I think she has doubled in size since I got her. I know when I took her to my vet a couple weeks after I got her she weighed 8 lbs and even then I think she gained a couple in those 3 weeks. Now she weighs just over 11 lbs. And she knows how to put all 11 lbs on one leg when she is standing on me.

Her new favorite toy is Smacky, her teddy bear (along with my hair bungees). She now has her own set of bungees which end up under the fridge or stove. Funny, all her toys do. She will throw her toys in the air, across the place, jump all over. It cracks me up. She has another flat mouse named Slappy. It has become a routine now that Slappy ends up under the fridge or stove and I have to fish him out with the hanger. I get on my hands and knees with my face to the floor and my rear in the air and try to fish him out. She then stands in front of me with her head looking under as well like, “oooo, he is there, I can see him, right there.”

In the morning, for some reason when I put my mascara on she starts to just MAWR up a storm. So I turn around and she takes off with me chasing behind. It has become a game and morning routine. Sometimes I get in such a rush that she will lie in the middle of the floor and reach out with her paw at my leg and then the chase is on again. She is such a wonderful and tame cat that I have not had to do much training with her. Whomever had her must have really hated to give her up. I often look at her and think that someone else must miss her dearly. But she has a wonderful home here as well. Thank you so much. I think what you do is a wonderful thing. I often go to the new PetSmart by my place and look at the kitties and hope they all end up in wonderful homes as well and think of you, and everyone else like you, who has the heart to care for them so much until they find their special home.
–Jennifer