Hi, everybody. This is Andrea, Lucia's foster human. I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell everybody what this blog has really been about, and to announce that soon I will be ending The Most Helpful Cat in the World. I may publish one or two more posts before September 15, but I wanted the chance to say goodbye properly to everybody who has supported me.

Lucia has been my first ever cat that I have had to take care of on my own, and spending the last few months with her has been an adventure for the both of us. The reason I initially brought her home was because she needed a cage break at Petco (to give you an idea, she had cleared the barriers several times when being let out by volunteers and escaped into the store!). She wasn't my favorite cat at the time, but I knew that I was only looking to provide a short-term foster to see if I was ready to foster long-term or adopt.

That changed once I brought her home with me. It didn't take much time at all before she "leapt into my heart" to paraphrase her description on the Anjellicle website. I began first to enjoy and then to love spending time with her, whether she was lying next to me while I worked on my computer, sleeping at my back, or rubbing her face against mine for a give-me-pets wake-up call. And she has always been a joy to play with - unlike some cats, when she gets sight of a toy being dangled out of reach she will stop at nothing to go after it! I'm pretty sure my downstairs neighbors must have thought I was rolling a bowling ball across my apartment sometimes.

As much as I enjoyed her company, however, I knew I couldn't foster Lucia forever. I lived too far away to take her to adoption events regularly, so Shifra at Anjellicle suggested that I start a blog to share her online. I'm extremely grateful to everybody who has taken the time to come and view her blog posts here and to share her on Facebook, even if my writing was clumsy and I didn't really know what I was doing. I hope that it's done Lucia even a little bit of good to get her out online.

By mid-September I hope to get Lucia into another foster situation where she can come to adoption events and hopefully find her forever home soon. My current job requires me to work long hours (longer starting in the fall), and with everything that I have going on in my life right now I don't feel that I have the time or resources to adequately foster a cat long-term. If Lucia can get adopted faster by going to events or even by being back at Petco I feel that would be best for her - and a cat as athletic as she is deserves bigger than a studio apartment!

So in closing, just a few more things about Lucia that I've learned from my time with her. She really is an excellent cat - I've never had any housetraining or behavioral issues with her and though she does meow and make cat noises (I've never met a cat that doesn't) she is pretty quiet most of the time and I've never had any complaints from my neighbors. She's even generally fine with being left alone for large chunks of the day, and as long as I play with her for a good 10 minutes before bed she doesn't run around or keep me awake at night. She loves to cuddle, and will usually spend at least part if not all of the night curled up next to my head or at my feet. Her food preference is anything edible - she even eats vegetables, so don't offer her your broccoli thinking that she'll sniff it and lose interest. When she wants your attention she will reach out and bat at your face gently, or perhaps she will lick your cheek or the end of your nose. And when she feels incredibly comfortable with you she will rest her head on your arm, or leg, or whatever part of your body is closest.

In closing - it has been a wonderful, humbling, and enlightening experience to be Lucia's human, even for such a short period of time. Please, won't you give her a chance?

She'll know if you don't.

For more information, please email adopt@anjelliclecats.com

I don't know what I did to deserve this. My daggers have been blunted. If the apartment falls under attack and I am unable to defend, the human has only herself to blame when the monsters drag her away to her grisly fate.

I cannot fight if my claws end in squares....

Pathetic. The human attempted to console me with the chicken treats. I ate them, but it was only to be polite. In reality I find myself full of fear and worry. I hope the human is satisfied. I myself am slowly coming to terms with the realization that I will forever have to sleep with one eye open.

Calm but wary.

To meet me, email adopt@anjelliclecats.com

The human abandoned me this weekend. She left in the morning. I ignored her because I had food. Eventually I had no food, and then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Someone came and fed me. Another human. It left. I was sad.

Eventually the human came home. I endeavored to show her how her absence had reduced me nearly to nothingness - to say nothing of how considerate I remained of her preferences when she was out! For instance, I did not sleep on the table.

See above.

Sometimes I wonder if any cat has ever suffered as much as I do.

To meet me, email adopt@anjelliclecats.com.

Nighttime is the easier time for wild beasts to invade the apartment. I hold myself poised, on alert for any hint of unwelcome visitors. The human does not realize that I am doing this, but she never does. If I were to stop and she were to get eaten by a beast, then she would be sorry. But I cannot open the cans of food by myself.

This is me hunting. The beast is off-camera.

What is this? The human lifts me and I am carried in the most undignified of fashions. Oh fine, if you must. I do enjoy getting scratched behind the ears. But only for a little while, understand?

Notice how here I am next to the human but she is not touching me. This is ideal.

That’s enough. Really, I must go. Do you not understand the part about the beasts? Finally she releases me. If she could only understand that the best time for snuggles is in the morning - but of course she is too busy not moving then. I will never understand humans.

To meet me, email adopt@anjelliclecats. com.

Today the human opened the door behind which there are treats, but she did not give me any treats. Perhaps she just forgot that was where the treats were, despite my best efforts to remind her.

I, on the other hand, always remember.

Instead she took out some oddly-shaped grey things. I smelled them just to make sure they weren’t treats. They weren’t.

See above: not treats

Now she is lifting them above her head. It looks uncomfortable. I will sit and watch. This exercise thing is much fun.

To meet me, email adopt@anjelliclecats.com.

It is small, and blue, and made of the most interesting material. Sometimes I like to gnaw on the scratchy patches that encircle its openings, but I find is especially useful to pretend it is a tree, or a convenient grouping of rocks behind which I may stalk my prey unseen.

I can see it, but it cannot see me.

Why are there three openings? I do not know, but three seems like the optimal number.

It's supposed to fold like this.

One time the human tried to lift the cube while I was inside it. I’m sure she just didn’t know better and wasn’t trying to play games with my mind. You can never tell with humans.

Birds

Why is it that the way they move is so unbelievably fascinating? It stirs something deep in my wild psyche, an earlier time when I stalked large beasts through tall grasses. I know I cannot catch them, but still I must watch them. They could attack the apartment. I’m doing this out of selfless reasons.

Constant vigilance.

It soothes me when I watch them to make the little chittering noise. I don’t know why.

If you do not watch them you do not know when they are mocking you.

If the glass was not here I would leap for them. The battle would be mighty and I would be victorious. And then I would give the bird to the human so she understands what it is that a cat really wants to eat.

To meet me, email adopt@anjelliclecats.com.