It seems students often end up bringing home animals from shelter medicine rotation. A cute puppy or kitten, or an animal that has had a really hard life tugs at your heart. I entered the rotation determined not to obtain any more animals. I have enough the way it is, and with moving coming up soon I do not need another animal to transport. Puppies are cute, but I know they poop a lot, need training, and take up a lot of time, so they weren’t too tempting. The adult dogs were very nice, but my small apartment has only so much room. And because I have hedgehogs, obtaining a cat has never seemed like an ideal thing to do. That changed on my second day, when a cute younger orange and white tabby male came in…He reminded me of a great barn cat named Harley that I had when I was growing up.
Anyway, this orange and white cat was so much like Harley in both looks and temperament that I just loved him. So much so that I went to find him the next day on the adoptable floor of the shelter after he had recovered from being neutered. He was awesome, and I put a hold on him so that he’d be taken off the adoption floor to become mine. But then I decided to pass, because I wished this sweet boy to have a better life than being my barn cat, and I knew that would likely mean being in another home. And then a stroke of luck! That night I saw on Facebook this sweet cat had been reunited with his previous owner, who came into the shelter that afternoon looking for him. Turns out this little kitty had wandered out of the house in February and hadn’t been seen in almost two months. His owner was overjoyed to see his buddy again. It made me so happy that he had found where he belonged to live the life he deserves.
