Tammy
Long-Distance Love
Amanda J. tells us how kitty Tammy came out of her shell at her new home in Maine:
I first saw Tammy's story on a Facebook page promoting adoptions. The phrases in the article that I remember most were "longest resident," "previous owner was ill and could no longer care for" and "special diet."
As I was reading, I had already decided she needed to live with me because my two boys eat the same diet and are healthy and happy! I texted my sister Sarah, with whom I share a house, and jokingly wrote, "I found our new cat! P.S. She lives in New York! Bye!" She knows my heart bleeds for all the homeless animals and I can usually rely on her to curb my crazy compulsive behavior...Usually!
Needless to say, as soon as she walked in several hours later, she said "What's her name?" and I thought, "Oh no. We have three cats and a dog now."
Over three conversations with several staff members at the ASPCA, I learned that Tammy was extremely shy and also had litter box issues, but was likely good with other cats and dogs. So my sister and I made the almost 700-mile roundtrip in one day to pick up your resident of almost 700 days.
We got stuck in traffic on the way home, but Tammy just curled up in her kennel and started to get used to our voices. We got home very late and introduced her to her own giant cat room in the basement—complete with catnip, scratching pads, toys, and of course food, water and litter.
She hid for the first day, only because she was scared of the creaky wooden floors above her. As soon as it was quiet, she would come right out for love and attention.
On the morning of her seventh day, she came upstairs for the first time! Sudden movements will still give her cause to jump up but even that is starting to occur less and less....so it just takes time! She hasn’t eliminated outside the box, either.
Hopefully, people remember that animals, like snowflakes, are different, and little miss Tammy can attest to that! Given free range and love at her own pace, she is quite a spunky little thing and has quickly earned her new name, "Mama,” since she should, by all accounts, be ruling our roost by day 12.
