Aurelia
(“The Golden One”| pronoun)
Aurelia’s story
Ariel wasn’t handling it well. I had just started traveling, leaving home for days on end. Loving, kind friends stopped in every day or so to make sure my cat had food, water, clean litter, and attention… but I started noticing changes in her behavior. When I returned from trips, she would purr for hours on end, do her ‘happy dance,’ and clung to me for a full 24 hours. Even after just returning from a 14 hr work day, she would follow me around, meowing loudly for hours. When her best efforts for more of my presence failed, she pulled her most desperate move. She started pooping outside of her litter box, every few days! (so GROSS!) Added to that, the vet was worried about her losing weight. As the owner, I had to do something. But what???
Then it came to me, during a conversation with my mom about her behaviors. She mentioned Ariel likely was missing me during the long days, and I thought, that’s gotta be it! Maybe she’s having separation anxiety? I mean, I’ve heard of that in dogs, can cats have it too? It was time for her to get a cat buddy!
As soon as I mentioned my decision to get a second cat to a fellow shelter volunteer friend, she sent me a picture of this beautiful white and grey cat just up for adoption. I wanted it! It had a striped tail and gorgeous blue eyes. I immediately drove to the shelter, not to volunteer this time, but to adopt!
When I walked into the room to see the cat, it was as gorgeous as the pictures. But so scared and timid. It immediately hid, and loudly protested being pulled out of its play box. Thinking maybe it needed some time to relax and observe me, I started petting the cat nearby. The little brown thing that was meowing at me and moving in circles trying its hardest to get attention and pets. Again, I attempted to lure the beautiful cat out, and again it protested and hid. By now the other brown cat was standing up, meowing loudly to turn my attention back to it. Then I noticed it – it’s almost like the little dark corner cat was saying “no! Pick me! Pick me!.”
Looking closer, I noticed this one was skinny, but had this pretty brown tortoise-shell coloring I’d never seen before. And wow was she friendly! Something inside me whispered: this cat would be a much better choice. Pick her. So, on that whim I adopted her instead.
The shelter staff knew little about her, other than she had been brought to them from a far-away city’s shelter, by a woman who was trying to re-home good cats in danger of being put down. They guessed she was about 2 years old, and said she had a sweet personality. She had only been up for adoption for 2 hours before I got there!
She sits curled up on my lap as I write this, looking twice as big, with long, beautiful multi-colored fur. That whisper was dead accurate. She turned out to be such a treasure of a house cat!! I named her Aurelia, after the treasure ship in “Fool’s Gold” (One of my favorite movies), because it represents her well. Honestly, she is one of the sweetest cats I have ever met. All she wants out of life is attention and friends. She never hisses, never bites, never claws the furniture, and used to help wake me up every morning when the alarm clock goes off – purring in my face (bad breath and all). Her only downfall is she can have stranger danger. She used to take days of exposure to finally venture out of hiding around a new human. She would usually just begin to let her guard down when my guests are about to finish their trips. Until she met Walt… (to be continued in the blog)
