CAT’s mission is to work with our community to save the lives of homeless, sick and injured cats and kittens by offering shelter, adoption, foster, hospice, and veterinary services to end needless feline euthanasia in our community.
In Suki’s case, CAT’s Meet Your Match program was more like Seniors Meeting Seniors when a new CAT volunteer fell in love with her. Suki was the oldest CAT at the shelter to be adopted in 2011.
Adopting Suki, a very senior Siamese snowshoe kitty (15½ years old), was a no-brainer for me. The last cats in our household, brothers, were with us for 14 and 18 years, and my extended family has always hosted seniors. Also I am a senior myself, and we complement each other perfectly. Senior kitties are special! Unfortunately, in the shelter, they’re often the most needy and most stressed of the cats - their very presence in the shelter in their final years is an indication they’re going through hard times, just when they’re least capable of handling the changes.
For older cats, abandonment or loss of their humans is especially fearful. Senior kitties are so grateful and happy to again have their own home and own humans. Being able to provide a senior kitty with her own permanent patch of sun, a corner of the bed, and a warm lap is incredibly satisfying. And at the very end, when things are desperate, the elderly cat will have all the comfort possible and the love of someone she trusts, and that’s something for which we all wish.
Suki joined my household quite by chance, but indirectly it was Suki who introduced me to Cat Adoption Team in the first place, a half year earlier.
Lowry S. (Nov 2011)
I was vaguely aware of CAT through the Cat’s Meow blog in Oregonian, but somehow left with the impression it was bake sales and kittens in boxes. Then Suki was featured as an Oregonian Pet of the Week, and my heart went out to her - schmaltzy, but that’s how it felt. She apparently was doing very poorly in the shelter environment and was so pathetic in the photos. While I couldn’t do anything at the time about Suki specifically, I followed up by learning more about CAT, found what an awesome operation it really is, and not long after started volunteering. As part of my work at CAT, I offered to foster needy adult cats and in November 2009 was given a hardship case, who turned out to be Suki. The circle had come full round.
Suki is a shelter-intolerant kitty. While few cats particularly like the shelter, despite the quality care they receive, most will accommodate to it. Suki didn’t, at all - she wouldn’t eat and wouldn’t let staff touch her. Additionally Suki is a medical special needs kitty, a diabetic requiring daily insulin injections. Successive caring foster parents tried to provide for her, but she is intolerant of other cats (and, by definition, most CAT volunteers do have cats in their households). She is particular about the humans she will accept to touch her. I was a last hope for her, as I had a cat-free household at the time, and happily Suki totally accepted me as her human.
It wasn’t many weeks before I realized she would never leave my home. I procrastinated officially adopting Suki, partly because I appreciated the strong support network that Cat Adoption Team provides to its foster families. However, for me there was never any doubt that I would adopt Suki. When I realized I’d been fostering Suki her for nearly two years and she had been within the CAT system for nearly three, I decided I’d better make the commitment official. The start of “Adopt A Senior Cat” month provided perfect timing.
Suki now has her own family and her own support network and she will have this for the rest of her days. It’s a comfort for us both.
Senior kitties are so awesome! They’re set in their ways so won’t provide unpleasant surprises, they’ve worked through many of the bad habits learned as kittens (we won’t talk about new ones they might have acquired), they’re the most house friendly and least demanding of companions, and they’re at a stage when they can focus all their love on their humans. Senior kitties have many years of kittitude left in them. They play…sedately or some of them like kittens. They monitor both the neighborhood and the household from their favorite perch by the window. They keep beds and laps warm. And they’re happy to keep their humans company without demanding anything more of them - at the computer or in the easy chair or on the bed (or under the covers). Just quietly hanging out with their human is what senior kitties do best.
14175 SW Galbreath Drive.Sherwood, OR 97140.(503) 925-8903..(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
