While initially there were good feelings around getting Belle and Paws, the whole thing started to turn sour immediately after meeting their old owners. The previous owners never gave us any veterinarian history. We asked several times. Belle and Paws’ previous owners also moved into another place that was literally minutes away from their last home.
These previous owners never even tried to keep in touch with us and we were literally not five miles away from the cats when the owners moved into their new home. We all knew some of the same people and you could almost see a tendency by everyone involved to avoid the situation and the subject of the cats entirely. Our final perception of the whole situation (rescue) on our end was that these cats were getting thrown away to the ASPCA because a family was done with them. Twelve years of giving love and these cats were being thrown away.
The cats were WAY overweight and it was clear they were not only getting the wrong food but were free feeding. We were told the cats didn’t do anything all day. Belle and Paws just laid around with no energy and didn’t even play. It even prompted one of the owners to say we were ALMOST afraid something was wrong so they were THINKING of taking them to the vet. This isn’t the care a senior cat should get when you think something is wrong… you take them to the vet. You don’t THINK about it.
It turns out it was just the wrong food and no activity was making them overweight. You could tell they still had the mindset of free feeding and when we introduced them to cat toys their whole world changed. Cat trees were something they had never seen before and We immediately made them their own cat tree which they took to immediately. They both made their own spots within the tree and you could tell they had finally come home.
Headed to a Rescue
The ASPCA would likely have split the pair up if they were able to place the cats in another home at all. Senior animals don’t have the best of luck in rescue situations. Belle and Paws have always been together, literally since birth. That’s what makes the two a bonded pair. When you see the interaction between the two of them, you understand they are brother and sister while at the same time understanding they have been together forever. It is absolutely heart warming.
If you’re like us, you’ve been to your local ASPCA. You already know there’s enough animals there with most animals (if not all) being former pets or newborns (puppies or kittens). Guess which ones are usually first out the door to new owners. If you guessed puppies and kittens then you’d be right. Younger ones always go first. I’m sure every owner has their reasons for their choice of pets. I have heard the arguments for younger animals. “They’ll be around longer”, that kind of thing. Our compassion for animals considers more than their age and we know from experience that the older ones stick around if you take care of them and see to their needs.
Nothing against these rescues… and most of the time, the ASPCA does move the needle in the right direction with regards to saving and the rescue of animals. I’m not throwing any shade here intentionally. Everyone should be encouraged to donate to their local ASPCA or adopt from them. Adoption from other groups is always an option as well and we further encourage those interested to simply search Google or any social media network using “your location” and keywords like “pet rescue” or “cat rescue” or “dog rescue”… depending on your preference.
However; the bottom line for them at the ASPCA and other groups, is that they can’t save them all or hold them indefinitely. Much of the time these groups simply don’t get enough funding to do so. To say the least, it wasn’t a good situation for these two scared senior cats.. who in our opinion.. still had love to give.
Introduction to the Family
Once we got Belle and Paws home, we introduced them to their new room. The room was already set up and we initially wanted to keep them separate from the rest of the animals in the household. We have a number of rescues that include other cats and some dogs. We didn’t want to scare Belle and Paws and they did take to their new surroundings just fine.
The second day saw an introduction to the whole family. We opened the door and put up a pet gate top keep them separate and immediately everyone knew what was going on. Zipper and Brackers wanted to go in the room and while Zippy is fine with jumping over the gate, Brackers is a bit too heavy and large for the jump. While Belle had no problem exploring the entire house herself and made the jump just fine. Paws on the other hand didn’t leave the room for a few days. He was very apprehensive but eventually warmed up to everyone and then started looking for food outside the room.
The problem is that we don’t free feed. We don’t put a bowl of dry food down and let the cats eat whenever they’d like. Our feeding routine includes feeding everyone at the same time and both Belle and Paws had to get used to that. It was clear they had been eating dry for their entire lives. Initially we were feeding them in their room but once it was clear they had no problem integrating with the other animals, we started feeding them as we do everyone else. Everyone gets a bowl of wet canned or fresh food and they all have their spots. Paws took the longest to get used to this setup but he did eventually get used to it.
Belle and Paws took their new home immediately and integrated amazingly fast in our opinion. We’ve done this a few times and they integrated with the family faster than any other cats we we have had. It was absolutely great. What started out as a very apprehensive situation, quickly became home for Belle and Paws.
They obviously… still had love to give.