Shiro

Human Entrant's First Name
Amanda

City
Candler

My Pet Came From:
Asheville Humane Society

Pet's Story
Have you ever heard of the Japanese word kintsugi? Instead of throwing away a broken piece of ceramic, you join the pieces back together with gold, creating something beautiful out of something broken.

2018 was a hard year for our family, humans and fuzzies alike. I lost both of my grandmothers less than six weeks apart from each other in March and May, and we lost our two lady kitties, Nikita and Amira, six weeks apart in May and July to aggressive forms of cancer. Our whole household was hurting. We were broken.

Donovan, my big grey fluffy boy, hasn’t been a solo kitty since he was around 6 months old. Losing his ladies has been hard on my big love. Fletcher and Linus obviously missed their cuddle partners, too. We realized that we would need to add a kitty roommate to the crew sooner than later. It hurt so much losing our girls, but we knew that there was someone out there that would need us.

We knew we wanted to adopt from Asheville Humane Society since a) both Amira and Nikita were rescues and b) we were dedicating a fundraiser in their memory (which raised over $650 for AHS!) Our initial thoughts were another lady kitty, maybe a black one. So, off we went on July 21st to go look, not intending to adopt immediately. We met so, so many sweet kitties, and were leaning towards a little black kitty girl. One of the staffers said “You should come meet Timmy!”

What’s a Timmy?

We move down to Timmy’s enclosure, and staring back at me is the most intense face. It was wise beyond his apparent age. It was, much to my shock, a tabby face. Amira and Dixie (my parents’ cat that died at the age of 18 in March 2018...yeah, 2018 was TERRIBLE) were tabbies. I have a professed weakness for tabbies. I was so worried about falling in love with another tabby cat after losing our girls, especially Amira, so suddenly. Timmy was a gorgeous, striking brown tabby boy. Allegedly he was shy. ...yeah, he was head butting us within about two minutes of first introductions.

The staff member comes back.

“So...Timmy’s missing a back paw.”

Lo and behold, his left rear leg ends below the knee in a perfect little stump. John and I share a look. We decide to meet Timmy solo in a room so we can get to know him. Despite being somewhere in the neighborhood of a year and some change old, Timmy is chill. He enjoys rubs and love, but is perfectly content sitting in a window and watching other people. He gets around brilliantly on three and a half legs.

Yeah, I’m a goner. I lean down and ask him if he’d like to join our motley crew. I got one perfect little lick on the end of my nose. That afternoon, Timmy became Takashi Shirogane Glenn-Bradley, or as we call him, Shiro.

We’ve seen Shiro grow from a shy rescue into the most incredible kitty boy over the past months. He has grown into the fluffy personification (felinification?) of joy. He gets excited to the point of drooling over snuggles. Shoestrings make him chirp and trill with excitement. One of his favorite events of the day is what we call “Shiro Sando”, which is when he gets (gently!) held between John and I in a hug. He wakes us up with love nibbles on the nose and gentle nudges with his paws on our cheeks. He doesn’t let his physical difference prevent him from being an incredibly active member of our family.

The dynamic he’s introduced to our other pets is nothing short of amazing. Donovan, our fluffy boy, acts like a much younger cat. He actively seeks out opportunities for cuddles and playtime for the first time in a few years! Our two pups, Fletcher and Linus, have a best friend. We’ve got an amazing family dynamic. As I’m writing this, Shiro and Fletcher are piled on the foot of our bed, napping together in a sunny spot. Shiro also became our “therapy buddy”. Because Amira was a patient at the University of Tennessee’s Small Animal Hospital, we worked with one of the amazing veterinary social workers for eight sessions. All but one of these were over the phone, and Shiro would plant himself down right in between John and I for the duration of the visit.

When we adopted him, we were looking for a companion for our fuzzy boys. What we got, however, was so much more than we anticipated. Shiro has infused such light and laughter into our lives after losses that completely unmoored us. Even on the days that I feel grief start to work its way back to the forefront, I have Shiro there to remind me that it’s okay to have those moments. Shiro is truly kintsugi; he is the gold that filled in our cracked bowl.