Adidas and Cyrus

We have a very special place in our hearts for this beautiful black boy cat because he was our very first foster cat!  Adidas started out as the most shy cat we'd ever met, and when we first brought him home and let him loose in his isolation room (one room at a time in new homes!), he ran into the closet and shivered with fear for about 36 hours.  Yikes!  But what a turnaround.  Adidas, who is roughly the size of a small panther, soon came out of the closet and ruled the roost.  He was such an energetic, athletic cat that he quickly tired of his foster parents and their wands and laser pointer and demanded a real, live cat friend.  Adidas quickly demonstrated that he loved chaos.  When we brought home a feline foster brother for him, he didn't hiss or growl as stranger cats do to one another; he was dying to meet the new guy!  Far from running away when neighbors and children came to visit, he sniffed them and let them pet him and generally reveled in mayhem!  But what about that handsome young man in the picture, Cyrus?

Linus and Bea

We met this happy pet and owner pair in the park this past Sunday. Linus is a Lhasa Apso. (Thank goodness for Google, so we all know how to spell "Lhasa Apso.")  Poor Linus had been dropped at a Pennsylvania SPCA late one night and was not found until the next day.  The poor guy had been left in his crate with no food or water all night, so not surprisingly, the hungry, thirsty pup was a bit aggressive toward the SPCA personnel.  (He was probably saying, "Hello! I'm uncomfortable and far from home! Please feed me, give me some water and a warm bed, and find my parents!") After several tries to remove him from the crate, the SPCA staff deemed him an aggressive dog and scheduled him to be euthanized.  But wait!  This is a blog for happy endings....

Kubla and Sara

This fine pair comes to Pets & Owners via Chattanooga, Tennessee.  More specifically, Kubla comes to us via a kind-hearted truck driver, Chris, who was renting a room down the street from Sara.  Sara and her husband once had a menagerie in their home, courtesy of their pet-loving children, but as the children and their pets moved away and built families of their own, only Bill the Cat and Judy the Airedale Warrior Princess remained.  Sara and her husband agreed that they wouldn't adopt any more pets - after all, they had grandbabies to visit!  But a little kitten from downtown had other ideas….

Stella and Brittany

Brittany is the fairy godmother for this adorable rescued Chihuahua, Stella.  When Brittany moved out of her parents' house into a one bedroom apartment with her boyfriend, she really missed her family dogs, so she convinced her boyfriend to get a dog of their own.  Because they were in a small one bedroom apartment, they wisely looked for the smallest dog they could find.  She immediately pulled up Petfinder and looked for Chihuahuas.  (Quick rescue public service announcement: Did you know that you can rescue a pet even if you are set on a particular breed?  Of course you can!  Search Petfinder, like Brittany, for a particular breed, or look for rescue organizations that specialize in the breed in which you're interested!  Brittany found another great option… read on!)

Emmy and Louise

Look at this adorable pair!  Emmy's is a true rescue story.  This little, teeny, tiny five-week old kitten arrived at a shelter with a broken leg and a broken foot. Not only did she have broken bones, but she didn't appear to be a thriving kitten - she was listless, unresponsive, and generally feeling terrible.  Enter my best rescue buddy, Lisa, who can save a broken kitten like nobody can.  Lisa whisked Emmy off to her kitty heaven home where hopeless kitten cases find hope....

Petit Louis and Natalie

You have to pronounce this pair with a French accent - Puhtee Lwee eh Nahtahlee!  It's just too fun to say.  Petit, as he's called for short, showed up at the house of Natalie's friend Melanie almost exactly five years ago.  When Melanie called to him, he came right over… and wouldn't leave.   He was friendly and sported a dashing pink bedazzled collar but no tags.  (Collars: they're not just for decoration anymore, pet owners!  Put some identification tags on those things.)  Despite the collar and the couple extra pounds the pup sported, which proclaimed that somebody once owned Petit, the little white guy had matted hair and tangles for days.  Clearly he had been left, lost, or abandoned....

Milo and Tiffany

Welcome to the first post on Pets & Owners!  It's fitting that the first picture is of Tiffany and Milo, our downstairs neighbors.  We are particularly happy to feature Tiffany and Milo because Milo was one of our foster cats!  In early August, our two fosters, Hercules and Tortilla, were adopted, and as we were heading out of the country on vacation, we weren't going to foster any cats until we returned.  Besides that, our handy, dandy basement apartment neighbor who always cat sat for us was moving!  When we received an email from our rescue organization's foster coordinator about an orange boy kitten who was turned into a shelter with no room, we said, "Well, we'll take him, but we're going to be gone for a week, so we're really your worst possible option."  Apparently, there were no other options, but we were better than nothing for this poor kitten....