Entrant's First Name
Marie

Tell us your Rescue Story
In July of 2015, one of the co-caretakers of the feral colony I successfully TNR'd in 2014 texted me to say there was a little newcomer to our colony. Black and white like most of the others, when I went to check him out he was happily playing with tree branches and leaves. He looked to be about 4 months old. The next weekend I was able to quickly trap him and take him to FixNation to get spayed or neutered.

I already had 3 cats at home, 2 of which were rescues themselves. It had been an rough year. We had recently lost one of our cats, who had chosen my youngest daughter as "her person" when she was a kitten. (She was devastated, and still talks about Princess.) We had also recently fostered a litter of kittens who we loved dearly, and found good homes for them. I also had to sell my house due to financial concerns. And I had recently lost my father to cancer. Emotions were high.

When we went to pick up the kitten at FixNation, he meowed at us. That, I told my daughters, is not feral cat behavior. And quite unexpectedly and acting from my heart and not my head, I told them, even though he's been eartipped, if he's a boy, we'll have 4 cats again, and indeed he was. (Although I likely would have adopted him if he was a girl. I think I had a feeling he was a boy.)

Named after my late father, Jack is an incredibly playful, loving, silly, and sometimes very naughty cat who brings us joy every day. He has helped us heal and move through the pain of the past.

Alternately crazy and cuddly, he is the only cat I've ever had who has never scratched me. He'll put his paws under the door when I'm in the bathroom, but he won't attack my toes when I stick them under the door. His favorite thing to do to get our attention is to flop on his back at our feet, legs splayed. He loves belly rubs and chasing our other cats around our apartment (which the other cats don't care for as much.) He will meow loudly to ask me to turn on the faucet so he can drink out of it. Sometimes we'll be watching TV and he'll fly across the room. An hour later he'll be snuggling on my leg. Sometimes he waits by the door for me to come home.

Every day I am incredibly grateful for my spur of the moment decision to adopt Jack.