Despite difficulties at the beginning of the year, the time inevitably comes to review last year's Petfinder posts and see how well they're working, how many pets you readers helped us picture home.
In 2023 we e-met...
Bruno and Arlo, orange tabby cat brothers from New York. They've been adopted.
Fibber and Molly, gray tabby cat sisters from Rockville, Maryland. They've been adopted.
Perry and Prince, gray tabby cat brothers from Atlanta. They seem to have been adopted.
And two gray tabby and one black kitten, brothers, from the Kingsport City Shelter. The shelter is not really part of Petfinder and further information is not available for them.
Kayla, collie dog from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. She's been adopted. Cheers, Gentle Readers!
Monty, collie dog from Chantilly, Virginia. He's been adopted.
Garth, collie-hound mix dog from Anniston, Georgia. He's been adopted.
Tripp and Lucy, cat companions from New York. They've been adopted.
Stella and Icy, cat companions from Alexandria, Virginia. They've been adopted.
Bailey, Hammy, and Bean Bear, sibling cats from Georgia. They've been adopted.
Penny, Lilith, and Vera from Georgia have not been adopted. (Penny is the orange tabby in front; Lilith is the gray tabby with extra-long fangs; Vera is the more normal-looking gray tabby.) What is the problem, Gentle Readers? We met the Weird Sisters in 2022. They're polydactyls but have other problem genes that deformed their polydactyl paws. They grew up feral but have been fostered by humans and become accustomed to living indoors.
I can't adopt them. I would, because they're polydactyl social cats like our late lamented Queen Heather, but there seems no way...these cats do need to be indoor pets; they're not built to live a mostly outdoor, natural life as Cat Sanctuary cats do. They can't hunt. They'd have trouble climbing trees. Serena loves all kittens, though she has very decided opinions--probably right--about which ones can and can't survive, and she's shown a lot of kindness toward old or disabled cats, but she does NOT approve of other female cats trying to cuddle up to her human. New cats would be peasants, kept in a place even behind her daughters as princesses. Cats who aren't pets, and aren't prisoners kept in cages, tend to wander off in search of places of their own. So there's a high probability that if I brought the Weird Sisters here, they'd merely go back to being feral and become strays who weren't fit to survive on their own. Not a very humane thing to do.
So, once again, this web site features the Weird Sisters.
Penny is said to be the outgoing sister, the leader of the family. Social cats can develop distinct social roles and become dependent on family members to fulfill their roles. Adult cats are slow learners; they can learn to do for themselves what they've formed habits of relying on a family member to do for them, but they're not happy about it. So if you adopted Penny alone, Lilith and Vera might feel lost and unhappy for a long time. Anyway Penny reportedly enjoys owning a human and will head-bump her foster human for attention.
Lilith's web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/lilith-44369496/ga/atlanta/southern-animal-rescue-ga653/
Lilith is the one with the most severely deformed teeth. She's the smallest of the Weird Sisters. She's shy, but has reportedly learned to purr and cuddle. She likes to play and explore and get underfoot and be amusing. People have asked about adopting her separately, and the shelter insist that the Weird Sisters be adopted together.
Vera's web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/vera-44369478/ga/atlanta/southern-animal-rescue-ga653/
Vera is the shy, typically feral sister. It's taken her time to come out of corners and chase toys during the daytime or curl up on her foster human's bed at night, and it'll probably take her more time to form any kind of relationship with you, especially if your bedroom door is closed to animals. She's more likely to amuse humans by interacting with her sisters. She does seem to know that she was not built to be a very successful wild animal, and might as well resign herself to being a pet. It will just take her time to work out what being a pet means to her, since she was born a "kitten number three" and usually waits to see what her sisters make of things.
People think gray tabby cats look ordinary. Well, they do. These tabbies are social cats, though. I can guarantee you that, as pets, they'll not be ordinary. Relative to normal cats, living with social cats is like living with a different kind of animal. They're as interesting as dogs yet they also (normally) have a natural instinct to use a litter box.
In some ways three cats are less trouble than one--they take care of each other's entertainment needs. Somebody Out There just has to want a family of sweet, shy, gentle social cats in per life.
We will continue revisiting pets who continue to need homes next week, but meanwhile I'm sooo chuffed that that Kayla dog found a home!
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