Friday, May 7, 2021

We've Been Adopted

If you stopped by Thoughts in Progress on Wednesday, April 7th, you may have seen where I mentioned we’d been adopted by a yellow tabby. Several of you asked to know more. Well, I’m finally getting around to telling you more. BTW, thanks for asking.

First, if you visit here often you probably already know this but for anyone who is new to the blog, here’s a bit of background on why being adopted was big for us.


Traveler
In 2011, I took in a beautiful grey stray cat I called Traveler (his photo also remains on the sidebar). Long story short, he became a huge part of my life. He was my fur baby as I have no children. Traveler moved with me to Alabama in 2015 and seemed to love living on the lake adapting to his new life with ease. He became ill in 2019 and we learned from our vet that he was much older than I had guessed as he was a grown cat when he found me. We treated his illness for almost a year, but we lost him a year ago on April 3rd (2020). His little heart just finally gave out.

His loss hit us hard. One good thing about the pandemic was that we were able to be home with him 24/7 the last few weeks of his life. Even now as I write this, it’s through tears. While we weren’t really sure we were ready to bring another cat into our lives, fate had other plans for us.

I tell you all of that to let you know that we have been adopted by a yellow tabby. Some might call him an orange tabby, I’m really not sure. Tell me what you think.

Persi
The process started back in late December (2020) when this big bundle of fur appeared as if out of thin air. My partner was out tending to some plants in the yard and looked down to see a cat rubbing around his legs. The cat then followed him around the plants checking each to see what my partner was doing to them. Then the cat started rolling around on the grass in front of him as if to say, “see I want to play.” The cat was friendly and followed him around for a while that afternoon.

We had not seen the cat anywhere before in our yard or the neighborhood. He was just there and then was gone again. We didn’t see where he came from or where he went. The next day he was back so I picked up a bag of cat food. We fed him on the front porch and by the next day he wanted to come inside. He would only stay for short periods after eating and would want to go back outside. We didn’t want to force him to stay in as we didn’t know where he came from. But we did start trying out names for him. We settled on Persi, short for persistent since he seemed to be persistent in being a part of our lives. Each day he stayed longer and became more and more a part of our family.

It’s been almost five months now that he’s been with us. He stays in all day, goes out for only a few hours in the evening when he wants to, and come in at night when we call to play with his toys and sleep with us or in his new bed. I’m amazed each day that he’s with us. We don’t know where he came from or why he showed up here. He just seemed to appear at a time when we needed him without us knowing we were ready.

There are times he reminds me of Traveler. The way he seems to understand what we’re saying and what it means. The way he lays sometimes, the strange positions he gets in. I’ve seen him laying near Traveler’s grave and a part of me wonders if Traveler may have guided him to us.

While we still miss Traveler terribly everyday (and always will), Persi has brought us much joy and continues to amaze us.

Thanks for stopping by today and letting me share our “adoption” story with you. Have you ever been adopted by a stray?

11 comments:

  1. Hi Mason - Persi looks amazing and appears to have very happily settled in with you ... gosh - enjoy him - he sounds quite delightful. Lovely story ... while Traveler will watch on ... and Persi makes you happy - let alone helping him. Such fun to read and see and I hope you'll give us more photos - very cheering - thank you - Hilary

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  2. Tears here.
    We have been adopted by more than one cat, cats who have moved in and claimed a permanent home in our hearts. A home which remains after they have gone.
    Persi looks like a honey coloured tabby to me, and I loved hearing how he found you - just when he was needed.

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  3. Oh Mason, I'm crying happy tears here! Congratulations on being adopted! I'm so happy this beautiful boy found you. Persi sounds like a very special kitty, and I can't help but wonder whether Traveler had a paw in sending him your way. :-) FWIW, I would call him a buff or cream tabby.

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  4. I'd say angels brought Persi to you.
    Pets are family and they are forever in our hearts.

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  5. Thanks for sharing your beautiful story of how Persi came into your life. It's amazing that two of your awesome pets came into your life that way.

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  6. What a lovely story, Mason. I remember Traveler, and what a loss it was when he passed. It's wonderful that you have a new tabby in your life, and Persi seems like such a loving member of your family. I'm really happy for you. Thanks for sharing the story!

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  7. Oh how sweet! Persi needed a home and he knew you needed him. I'd call him a cream tabby.

    We lost Rocko 4 years ago and I still get teary-eyed thinking about it. It was a couple months before we were ready for another cat as her loss hit us hard. But Star and Rocket have been a wonderful addition to our family.

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  8. What a sweet story. Persi certainly was persistent. I love how he subtly made himself part of the family.

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  9. I am so glad that Persi came to you--he s lucky, and so are you! He's beautiful ; )

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  10. Mason - Marc and I have so many similar experiences with our adopted New York strays that your story about Traveler and Persi brought tears to my eyes. What you have so beautifully described may be beyond our understanding, but I do believe Traveler's spirit had something to do with Persi finding and adopting you. As I said, it's happened to us, just this way, more than once! "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio..."

    ~ With much love,
    Cleo

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  11. Hi guys, thank you everyone so much for such awesome comments. Y'all brought tears (the good kind)to my eyes. Thank you so much for understanding how a couple of cats can have such an impact on your life. Wishing you all the very best.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's post. Thanks for dropping by.