Adoption Stories: And The Winners Are …

In honor of Petfinder’s Adopt The Internet Day, we asked for your adoption stories and said that three of you would be randomly selected to win a Purr More, Hiss Less mug from our Zazzle shop. We’re delighted that we received 21 wonderful comments on our website and on our Facebook page. We used the site random.org to generate three numbers between 1 and 21, and now it’s time to announce the winners:

Winner #1: Aimee Vinciguerra

I adopted Kismet almost three years ago now. My little girl, Psyche, a black and white tuxedo, had cancer, and I had to put her to sleep a month shy of her 6th birthday. I was heartbroken and so was her older brother Karma, who was 17 at the time and had never been an only cat. At my vet’s suggestion I went to one of our local shelters to look for a new addition. As I walked in the door, there was a cat room to my left and on the cat condo was a beautiful black and white tuxedo with a white bindi in the middle of her forehead. She looked at me with these amazing yellow eyes. I told her I couldn’t take her, she looked too much like my Psyche and I just didn’t think I could handle that.

I went to the desk and after they checked things out, they said I could go and look around to pick out a cat. I went into the three other rooms first, looking at each cat but none of them had the “spark” or the recognition that I was looking for. I went finally to the room this little tuxedo girl with the bindi was in and as I opened the door she licked my hand and started purring loudly. I started to pet her and she couldn’t get enough. Another woman came in, this little furry lady let her get one gentle pet before she moved far away from her and came back to me. She then jumped off the cat condo, twined around my feet, raced over took a bite of food, then came to twine around my feet again. At that point I knew I had lost this battle and been chosen to be this little lady’s mom. Her name had been Chubbs. She had double paws on both front feet and white whiskers and eyebrows. As we left the shelter and I put her carrier in my car I said out loud, “Well, you were fated to be my baby, so I’ll name you Kismet.”

Within 24 hours, Kismet and Karma were friends. I’m not sure which of my babies has come back … but obviously one of them did.

Winner #2: Donna

My first “adoption,” I guess, was a senior cat (we figured about 15) whose human was sick and had to move into a home. None of his family wanted the cat so I took her in. I had Sweetipie for 6 years before I had to put her down at the age of 21. During that time I took in Smokey, a cat that my father was feeding outside, as a friend for Sweetie, since her doggy buddy had to be put down and she was lonely. There were adjustments but they eventually got along.

During this time I decided to become a foster momma and waited patiently for my first fosters to be caught and brought to me. I failed my first fostering; I ended up adopting one of the kittens that would have been hard to place. Smokey was lonely when Sweetie died, but she wasn’t sure if she liked this new boy here without his brother to keep him occupied.

I have continued to foster and have had some very interesting experiences and could have easily adopted a whole slew of the cats/kittens that have gone through my home.

Winner #3: Sue S.

Sue shared this story on our Facebook page:

I have several but I’ll share Antonio’s. My cat Boo passed in October in her sleep. The house was so empty and silent and I just couldn’t bear it. I was going to wait till I had paid off a massive vet bill but just couldn’t.

I stumbled on to the adopt-a-pet website and set up a search. My requirements were simple: tuxedo over the age of five. Several days later I had an e-mail from them about a cat named Mouse, who was at Arlington, Tex., Animal Services. He was seven years old and declawed. They are a high-intake shelter, and we all know what that means.

I have to laugh here. I hate expressway driving. I drove a total of 70 miles to get him. When I walked through the door, I gave them my name and said I’m here to take Mouse home. No “I’m thinking about adopting him,” just “I’m taking him home. I was taking him home no matter what.

His intake date was October 11, and he was home with me on October 15.

He is now Antonio for Antonio Banderas; he was too elegant a gentleman to remain Mouse. Antonio was an owner surrender, and I want to believe that he was not given up lightly.

Congratulations to Aimee, Donna, and Sue! Please send an e-mail to advice at paws-and-effect dot com and give us an address where we can mail your prizes. You can also attach a photo of your cat and we’ll be glad to include those pictures in this post, too!

And please, don’t forget to read all the other wonderful adoption stories our readers shared. We give our heartfelt thanks to every single one of you who has gone out of your way to adopt homeless cats, work in rescue, volunteer in trap-neuter-return campaigns, and participate in disaster relief efforts for animals. You are an inspiration to us all!