Pet Stories: In Your Own Words

About 8 years ago, I went to a shelter and adopted two beautiful and sweet little kittens, and named them David and Elizabeth. This past January, right after we moved, I suddenly realized something was wrong with Elizabeth, who'd always been happy and carefree. I took her to the vet, and was shocked to hear that she had a serious liver problem. She got worse, and spent the last week and a half of her life at the specialist's clinic, where she was actually delighted to be meeting all of these new people. (I never had a pet who was happy at a vet's office or clinic).

Within three to four weeks, I'd suddenly lost our fluffy little black bundle of happiness. I felt so horrible; her loss was so unexpected. Because I'd adopted 3 other "orphans" in recent years, I hadn't planned to do what I know is the best way to heal: to adopt another without waiting too long, knowing there are so many little love-beings just waiting to be loved, and bring love and healing to us. My veterinarian and his wife are known to be "softies" who take in "foundlings" and let them live in their clinic if they're not adopted. Two months to the day I'd lost my Elizabeth, I happened to be at the vets for food, and the vet's wife somehow mentioned that they'd had "a little fluffy black cat who'd been there for a year and a half without having been adopted. I knew I had to see her.

She looked almost exactly like my Elizabeth. She was sweet and put her little paws around my neck. In eight to nine years, I'd never seen a solid black long-haired cat available for adoption at my vet's. And here was my Elizabeth's look-alike. The first night I brought her home, held her and kissed her for 40 minutes. She didn't know what a bed was, and about a week later, I walked into her "room", and she was proudly lying on the bed. She nuzzles my face every once-in-awhile. She's a "gift from heaven," she's helped me heal, and she has a home and precious cat brothers. It's very hard to lose a baby, but the only way we heal is by keeping the love going. And we honor our "lost" ones by doing what we did with them, adopting another little "stranger" (at first) to love. And so, progress continues, and love continues, with our little Elizabeth the Second.