This is an autobiographical post. The names of people and places may be changed.
We decided to write autobiographical posts about the colorful life we have lived. There will be tales of sleeping in a campervan on the beach, of defending a bird’s nest from a snake, and of running away from wolves while sick with bronchitis. There will be tales of diagnosis with PTSD and ADHD and how it changed our lives, of meeting biological family, and of job loss. It’s a tale of overcoming challenges, of finding out who we are, of love, hope, cats, and of a marriage that’s gotten stronger through it all.
Autobiography Post 14
We both love cats. We grew up with a variety of pets in our households. Dogs, cats, birds, fish, baby chicks, and more. But when we first started living together and Dorian worked odd hours at the news station, we wanted a pet to keep me company at home. I had never owned a cat before despite advocating for years with my adoptive parents. Dorian had had many cats as a child. After adopting our first cat, it started a journey of rescuing one other cat to keep, as well as rescuing four others that got adopted.
The Cats We Kept
Danaerys
Dany was our first cat. In 2014 a friend on Facebook posted that his grandma found a kitten out on her farm and no other family with it. We drove to see the kitten and fell in love. After a quick stop at a pet store to get literally all the supplies to own a cat, we came back and brought her home. Dany has delighted us with her laziness, fear of heights, her enjoyment of zip ties and other trash that she deems to be toys, and a very cranky sounding meow.
Gamora
Despite her adult laziness, as a kitten Dany was quite the terror which led to her nickname Gato Loco. So we wanted to get her a friend to play with. We only had one parameter: the cat had to be between one and two years old. After looking at a few shelters, we found our Gamora in 2015. Though it took awhile for her and Dany to get along, now they are good playmates. Gamora has been a source of constant energy and zoomies, a lap cat that will seek you out as soon as you sit down, and a chatterbox.
The Cats That Got Adopted
The first cat we rescued but didn’t keep we called Prince Orange. This was in 2016, I can’t remember now where we found him. We were able to get in touch with a local no-kill shelter and offered him along with a sizeable donation for any care he needed. We were informed he was adopted to a family a week later.
I don’t have a photo of the second cat. It was another male orange, so I called him Prince Orange II. I saw him living in a sewer grate near my work. However, he was feral. With the help of a local shelter that loaned me a trap cage, I was able to capture him with food and bring him to them. Since he couldn’t go with a family, he was released onto a volunteer’s farm where he would be safer and live more comfortably.
The third was a very young cat I found wandering alone in an apartment complex by the trash bins. She was meowing and was very friendly when I came up to her. I took her home in my car. Unfortunately, the shelters were full. However, a friend of ours had recently lost their cat and were looking for a new one. They drove two hours to come get her and named her Cersei.
The final cat we helped was Prince Orange III. We found him on a country road not far from our house, looking confused. He was very loving and friendly and we brought him home. We were able to work with the same no-kill shelter to get him to a new family. This was the one we truly almost kept, because he was so incredibly sweet. He and Cersei were both in 2017.
We have always been advocates for animals and do what we can to volunteer and donate to animal organizations and shelters. One of my earliest memories of Dorian is him rescuing koi fish by hand from being stuck in a neighborhood drain that had run dry and racing them to his parents’ ponds (they are always happy to take on more animals). We love our Danaerys and Gamora and hope the other four cats we helped have long and happy lives!
