Five years ago today, we added Katusha to our household! She is one of the inspirations behind the My Cat Jeoffry “cat bookstore” because of her penchant for snuggling up next to me in bed or curling up in my lap on the couch and letting me read to her 🙂
I thought maybe kids could learn to read by reading to cats in the store, and cats could learn to become more social by letting people read to them! A help-help situation!
Anyway, we got Katusha from the Los Angeles County Shelter via a wonderful person named Gwendolyn who was her foster mommy. Katusha and her siblings were found on the street somewhere in Northwest L.A. They were tiny and helpless and their mom was nowhere to be found. She was likely out hunting for food. A samaritan brought them to the shelter, but they were too small to fend for themselves, so Gwendolyn, a volunteer, took them in and nursed them until they were ready to be adopted out. I happened to be a friend of a friend of hers on Facebook because I saw her post and went over and met my little sweetheart, then called Cinderella because of her penchant for sleeping in people’s shoes as a tiny kitten!
Big sister, Rhea, was not thrilled with getting a new addition, as she’d been Queen of the House for several years (and, okay, still is!) But she learned to be tolerant of the new little one.
When we got the dog, Sofia, at first there was all manner of chasing and hissing and growling and claws in the face and, uh, crazy times. Rat terriers, I learned, can be difficult to habituate to cats if they didn’t grow up with them (they see them as large rats to be chased). And Sofia came to us at 9 months. But eventually everyone settled down and now they all get along quite nicely! Actually, each cat now really likes the dog and vice versa, so everyone has a playmate whenever they want one 🙂
Happiness! Thank you so much, Los Angeles County Animal Shelter, and Gwendolyn!!
