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
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