an abandoned cat for an emotionally abandoned owner

by David M
(New Jersey)

After having lost the dog I grew up with my entire life, I was feeling very lonely when home. My mom was at work and my brother was off to college. I was in need of a new pet. I knew because of my schoolwork and my mom’s busy schedule, a dog was out of the question due to the time and effort it takes to train one.

My next instinct was to get a cat. My mom had never understood the concept of a cat because my family is very fond of dogs. I had told my mom that I wanted a cat and she was very hesitant to even think about it. I continued to pester my mom about getting a cat but she would not budge.

Eventually I dropped the concept and started to accept the fact that I would not be able to get another pet. Many weeks later, I had begun to think about getting a cat again and how much fun it would be. Before telling my mom again and having her turn down my idea, I had looked up many shelters and many different people who were giving cats up for adopting. After finding many possible cats to consider for adoption, I had began to pester my mom once again. I found out that the main reason she doesn’t want a pet is because she didn’t want to be stuck with the cat after I leave for college in two years.

After begging my mom for many days, she agreed to consider it IF I could get my father to agree to take care of the cat when I go to college. I had brought up the concept to my father and his girlfriend Marie, and they had agreed to take care of the cat. It wasn’t too difficult to get them to agree due to Marie’s love for cats. They also thought that the new cat would get along with Marie’s cat Hammie.

When I had informed my mom of my dad’s answer, she was a little irritated because she knew that she had to actually consider getting a cat. After about a week and a half of asking and waiting for an answer I had become a little more confident of my chances because my birthday was coming up, and I had continually said how perfect a cat would be. I showed her some of the possible cats and possible shelters we could look into. She had informed me that any cat we get, would have to be a short haired, female, kitten. Her reasoning was she didn’t want it to shed all over the house, she didn’t want it marking it’s territory, and if we were going to get a cat we would get a kitten so she can at least enjoy it’s cute kitten faze.

About another week or two later my mom’s close friend calls. She nearly hit a cute little kitten with her car. Having already had several cats and now having five hunting dogs, she would not be able to take care of the kitten too much longer. She informed us it was a female longhaired calico. It couldn’t have been a more perfect time. My mom had told me and I became ecstatic! I kept bugging my mom when we can go get the cat from her friend but we had to wait for her friend to come home.

Then, we received the sacred phone call I had been waiting all day for. “You may come get the cat now.” That’s all I had to hear for me to race into the car and wait for my mom to follow.
A few minutes later we were pulling into the driveway and I wanted to jump out and find my kitten. My mom had decided that even though it was a longhaired cat we would get it, because it was perfect in every other way (including cuteness). When my mom’s friend came out holding an adorable little fur-ball that fit in the palm of her hand, the biggest smile appeared on my face. I held her and put her in the blue milk crate we were given to keep her in temporarily while we went out to buy a real carrier.

We had arrived at the pet store and bought our new, cute little kitten a bed, a cat carrier, a few toys, two crates to keep her in the kitchen and family room, and a bunch of cat food. When we brought her home we let her out of the carrier and she immediately ran into a hiding spot. She was finally home. Jasmine was finally home. The first two weeks Jasmine would hide when any noise was made, but eventually she settled in and realized that we’re here to take care of her and love her.

After she grew a little more, we discovered that she’s half calico and half tabby. She now is about six or seven months old and her hair seems much shorter than when we first got her. She used to run and hide every time I sneezed or made any loud noise, but now she’s so comfortable that I can even play my drums without her getting scared. She sleeps with me in my bed every night and occasionally wakes me up at night by jumping on me, but either way, I couldn’t love her any more.

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