Having lost both of my parents within 5 months, I had to be away from home quite a bit. In spite of having friends regularly checking in on our 2-year-old tabby Zar, he developed pretty severe separation anxiety. We debated getting another cat – a friend for him. Would he like them? Would this new addition just kick his existing anxiety into overdrive? Should we do it?
A decision was made. We’ll give it a shot and see how it goes. We found CARE, and set up a time to go visit some kitties. That’s when we met Maverick. He was the first kitty to approach us, and we felt like his energy would match Zar’s. I feel like he chose us, so the decision was an easy one.
His foster mom Patti brought him over to the apartment, and guided us through how to go about slowly introducing him to Zar. Long story short, Maverick has been with us for 3 weeks, and he and Zar are the best of friends. They eat and sleep together, and even groom each other. I think that Zar was a lot lonelier than we realized. We call Maverick “our mini-panther”. He is the sweetest snuggle-bug. We love Maverick, and are so happy to have him in our family. I can’t wait to see what kind of mischief these two get into over the next many years.
A couple of years ago, we adopted another CARE cat, Winston. He never bonded with our senior kitty, Cricket. They didn’t fight, but lived separate lives; Cricket made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with our new arrival who looked like, but clearly was not, her longtime beloved companion Porter (who had also been a CARE kitty many years ago!). After we mourned Cricket’s loss, we decided that Winston should have a feline companion. Even though he clearly loves our dog Millie, and they do play together, we felt he needed some feline friendship. So we turned to Patti Liegl, the CARE foster mom who had brought Winston into our lives, and we ended up taking home her foster kitten Belle for a trial. As we had hoped, after a very careful introduction, Winston and Belle (now named Bonny), have hit it off brilliantly, and are shaping up to be the best of friends. Millie is happy, too, and we look forward to many happy years together with our newly expanded family. Thanks, CARE, for all the great work you guys do, and thanks especially Patti! The picture is left, Winston (Wings) CARE 2020, right Bonny (Belle) 2022.
One fine September day back in 2018, we decided to go to an adoption event at Phydeaux. We already had adopted 2 dogs from CARE before and we just wanted to get some puppy love. We were not really looking to add to our pack but when we saw Beatrice the beagle, we fell in love! It took her at least 6 months to really fit into our pack, especially with our oldest dog. However, they became best friends before long. She has been an awesome addition and we cannot ask for a better companion. We also did DNA test on her and it turned out she’s 100% beagle as we thought she might have dachshund in her. We love our CARE adoptions! You guys are the best fosters!!!
Three weeks ago I adopted a second cat through CARE…an 11 month old tuxedo cat, Felix. I got him as a companion for my 7 year old female cat, Skittles. She has adjusted to his youthful antics, and he has been a constant source of amusement! Thank you CARE for all you do.
We started talking about adding another cat to our two cat household in 2019. When I found CARE and saw Fitz and Mac, I knew we couldn’t adopt one without the other. Our two cat household quickly became a four cat household. Patti was their foster mom and great about bringing them to our house to meet us and working with our schedule. They were super shy those first few weeks but quickly opened up. I’m so thankful we decided to adopt them together as they’re still very bonded and love to play and cuddle with one another. They also ended up bonding with our older male cat and it’s fun to watch the three of them together. We call them the bad boys club because the three of them are always into everything, especially if there is food in the vicinity. Fitz and Mac are so affectionate and silly – they really do bring so much joy to our household. When people ask me about adopting cats now, I always recommended adopting a bonded pair!
My precious Haven will be 7 yrs old on April 21, 2022. She came into my life at 6 months old having been fostered by Laura and Jesse. She is the bright spot in my life everyday. I will be forever grateful to CARE for choosing me as her forever mom.
We adopted Phoebe from CARE. She’s a great cat – we love her.
I have had 5 dogs in my life and 4 were adopted from CARE (the 5th, Kira, was a stray who showed up in the neighborhood). Red, my first, was Heinz57 mix and a lover. He was everyone’s friend, even though he had been a stray and, we found out later, had even been shot and had a chest full of birdshot. Best dog ever. Vesta was part of a litter abandoned by the side of the road. She was a shepherd mix and true to her breed and name (Vesta – Roman goddess of home and hearth), she was a protector – regularly patrolling the fence perimeter (either protecting or looking for escape routes). Humphrey also had a rough start. He had been adopted from CARE as a puppy but then returned as a very fearful dog, terrified of men (if I ever meet that guy who hurt Humph, grrrrr). He’s a lot better now, but still hesitant of men he doesn’t know, and a total lovebug to those he does know. When Humphrey needed a new buddy, I of course went to CARE. I took him to an adoption event to meet one dog, but when he met Ginger it was love at first sight. I found out later that Ginger’s foster dad had nicknamed her “the whirlwind.” Thanks Laura, she is a handful. But we love her. And all dogs we’ve ever met from CARE.