That post-adoption high :)

Well, I've been horrible about updating as I've been sooo busy. Thankfully I have a few more exams behind me and have begun catching up... 2 more days of testing next week and then I'm DONE!

I finished my Gross Anatomy class yesterday after pulling an all-nighter. In fact, during my all-nighter I received an email from a woman interested in adopting my Pen Pal, Diego (see a few posts below). I had been posting on Craigslist and had listed him on Petfinder for several weeks, but got nothing but spam mail as a reply :(

The email I got was a legitimate inquiry, and this couple sounded amazing!

"My name is ____. My boyfriend and I are looking to adopt a cat. I've had cats for most of my life, but he's never lived with a pet, so we think we should get a nice, laid back older cat, someone very affectionate and easygoing. We are both artists and make our livings working from home, so our future cat will not be lonely, although we do occasionally travel we already have a cat-loving friend who has volunteered to cat-sit for us when we are out of town.

If Diego is still available, he sounds like a great fit for us. Would we be able to come and meet him tomorrow (Tuesday)?"

It sounded perfect, and although it was ~3 am we corresponded a few times and made arrangements to meet later that day, after my exam. I took my test, napped for a few hours and then headed off to the shelter. We had agreed to meet around 3pm, but by the time 3:40 had come around they didn't show up. I was worried they would be a no-show but thankfully we exchanged phone numbers before then. I put a call into them and the woman answered and said they were lost. Within a few minutes they showed up.

They had never been to the shelter before and I was concerned they would arrive and be drawn to another cat. I wouldn't have cared, of course, because a cat saved is a cat saved, but as soon as they met Diego their eyes didn't deviate in the least! It's tough to show a cat in the shelter as their isn't a great place, but we found a large storage room and let Diego roam and interact. The woman had said that they would likely "sleep on it" after meeting him, but within about 20 minutes they were in love, adopting him, and even made a donation to the shelter.

A few hours later, I received this email:

"Wow, Diego is amazing. He was very good in the car, and then had absolutely no fear or nervousness at all in our house. He's just walking around, checking things out, stopping for a cuddle break, then on to more exploring. No adjustment time at all, it's his place already! He's fantastic!"

And after another few hours, this one:

"Yep, he's eating his food (he seems to like an audience for that) and drinking water just fine, loves the cardboard scratching thing we got him, and has been walking back and forth between my boyfriend's and my computers to get some scritches, and is already following us from room to room to make sure we're ok :) He did love the brush and it really brought out his gorgeous stripes! And he was totally fine when we went out to buy his food and get dinner, came back and no surprizes, he'd just taken a nap while we were gone, and he did not care at all when I put a collar on him... He's so easygoing this whole process has been unbelievable, I thought it'd take days to get to this point."

I'm ecstatic. What a high to know you've helped a needy shelter kitty hit the jack pot. Diego's "case" exemplified exactly what the Pen Pal program is about... showcasing fabulous cats who would otherwise get overlooked in the shelter setting. I'm so happy, and hope that I continue to receive more updates from Diego's new parents.

I have just been assigned another Pen Pal. Although I'll only be in Philly for... 10 more days (yikes!), hopefully I can get photos and advertisements running for her and then someone can easily step in after I leave.

In other news, my "zoo" is doing well. ET had a nasty cold of sorts for a few days earlier in the week, but he seems to be over that by now. I'm going on vacation for a bit after school is over and I'm in the process of arranging things with a pet sitter so that ET and Lacey don't have to be boarded at the vet. I think it will work out great.

Thanks for reading :)