Entrant's First Name
Shawn

Your Pet's Rescue Story
She was the tiniest thing I had ever seen. A little miracle found crying all alone in the grass I was told. She seemed just like the hundreds of other kittens that would be rescued that year.

I had just began fostering for the shelter and I was picking up my first litter consisting of 5 newborns with their mom - and one tiny orphan. Even though her eyes were barely open, it felt like this tiny orphan was looking into my soul and hugging my heart each time she looked at me.

Being a runt, we almost lost her a time or two as she began to grow weak and lethargic during her second week with me. I felt a wave of grief I wasn't expecting for only having had her for a short time.

I called her Echo. We spent every day together for hours at a time as I taught her how to chase a mouse and she taught me patience. After eating, she would crawl up on my chest or lay in the palm of my hand and wait for me to sing her sleep.

We were working towards opening our Cat Café and Rescue. We were so excited knowing we had a chance to make a difference for so many other cats and kittens. In a cat café, cats are allowed to roam freely to mingle personalities with prospective adopters. A more relaxed interaction for both sides greatly increases the success of forever adoptions. We were going to change the feline world! Then, in the blink of an eye, life happened.

At the end of last year, we lost both our jobs, had to move my son to Florida from Texas due his father dying suddenly, and our landlord sold the home we were occupying so we had to move last minute with what little savings we had left. It felt like all the despair in the world was sitting on my heart. I walked into the kitten room and sat down. As Echo climbed up on my chest and stared at me, I cried. Life events are hard for everyone but since I live with depression, our circumstances felt overwhelmingly hopeless and terrifying. I wanted to just throw my hands up and hide until it was all over. I needed a lifeline. My answer, ironically, was in the last 6 letters of the word....feline.

We weren’t supposed to have another cat, especially now. But, she would sit and listen to my voice even if she had no idea what I was saying. She would cuddle with me when I was sad and entertain me with kitten acrobatics until I laughed myself silly. She had saved me in every way an animal companion could save someone. This tiny orphan had become bigger than life and my whole world.

Echo survived kittenhood and helped me survive one of the hardest times in my life. There are some who say animals can't think or feel on our level. I believe this is true. I think they feel more deeply and think more clearly than we ever could. They prove the greatest things in life come when you least expect it, always when they're needed and often in the smallest of packages.