In March 2020, just as the world was about to shut down due to the pandemic, we lost our sweet Carley cat. She was 15 years old. She was so loved. She started as my cat, but she became OUR cat. It was devastating to lose her, especially at such an uncertain time in the world. I’m eternally grateful that we were able to be there with her as she passed. Had it happened just a day or two later, we most certainly wouldn’t have had that privilege.
A few months later, we decided we were ready to consider adopting another cat. We agreed that we wanted to adopt an adult cat. Kittens tend to find homes more easily than adult cats, so we wanted to give a home to a cat who may not have found a home otherwise.
We searched online—mostly on Petfinder.com. We saw pictures of so many cats, but it was love at first sight when Arnold’s picture popped up. Seeing this grey tabby with the huge yellow eyes and small, kittenish face, we had to meet him in person.
Arnold has such a unique name. His foster mom named him after her own father—so sweet! She brought Arnold to our house so we could have an official introduction. He was so nervous to meet us, he had an accident in his crate—poor thing! He was unsure, but he was so sweet. Arnold’s foster mom assured us he was a confident cat.
The first few days in our home was a big adjustment for us all. Arnold had never lived outside of his first home and he had never been an only cat. We quickly learned that he was full of energy, loved to play with toys and loved attention from people even more, even if he was still a bit timid and found comfort in hiding under the bed in the guest bedroom.
The bedroom was Arnold’s safe place for several weeks while he continued to warm up to us. We would call him out to come play with us, but then he would go right back to the bedroom when we finished playing. It took a while for him to feel comfortable hanging out with us regularly.
Then one night, Arnold finally decided to sleep in our bed for the first time. I don’t know if he actually slept—it’s quite possible he just “loafed” between our two pillows for the whole night. But, he trusted us enough to spend the entire night in our room—success!
As time went on, we grew to love Arnold so much more than just “love at first sight”. He was so sweet, affectionate, playful, and just an all-around perfect cat. We decided we wanted another cat! We liked the idea of Arnold having a playmate and companion, so it made sense to go back to Arnold’s foster mom to ask for a recommendation of another cat to adopt.
Foster mom suggested a few different cats she had at her home—one of which was Flash. He was a young adult, slightly cross-eyed black cat. We would later learn that he also has an adorable white spot on each of his back feet. Having a soft spot for black cats, I knew he was the one we needed to meet.
We didn’t know much about Flash’s demeanor before we met him, but when his foster mom brought him to our house, we quickly learned that he’s very brave! There was practically no introduction period needed. I clearly remember him sitting on my lap the very first night he was at our home. It was automatically his home, too.
We thought we would have to go through a long waiting period to “re-introduce” Arnold and Flash to each other. They knew each other previously at their foster home, but we didn’t know if they would remember each other or how they would react to each other being in a new setting.
We tried our best to keep them separated for the first few days, while slowly giving them limited interactions with each other. It was difficult to keep them separated, as neither wanted to be secluded from the rest of the family. On the third day, we let them fully meet face to face. They got along perfectly from that very moment! We didn’t try to separate them any more after that—it was clear they wanted to be together.
And the rest is history! Adopting both Arnold and Flash was the best decision ever. We were able to give two adult cats a home, and they were able to fill the cat-shaped hole in our hearts. We couldn’t ask for any other cats to complete our family more perfectly than these two have.
