Friday, March 29, 2024
adopting a catanimal rescueanimal welfarecats adoptedcats for adoption

Adopted: Puddin Steps into Another Heart

orange cat with orange eyes.
Puddin has a new human and a loving home after a chain of people moved to help him.

Yesterday I featured Puddin in my Monday “cat for adoption” post not knowing a little deal had been made over the weekend and Puddin is spoken for. I’m glad I was wrong and wish I’d be wrong a little more often when it means a homeless kitty goes to a new loving fur-ever home! The seemingly endless list of photos and stories can seem discouraging when we see how many cats, all of them equally loving and beautiful, are looking for humans to love them, and we need a happy ending now and then.

When an adoption happens through a chain of people who rescued, fostered, shared and ultimately found a new home for a cat I especially like to share the story. In these cases adoptions are most often facilitated by physical or virtual face-to-face conversations, each person in a group sending the message on to friends and approaching prospective adopters with a personal appeal. Sometimes this way you find the person you thought least likely will step forward and accept the offer, and so it was here, with a lot of little twists of the heart.

. . . . . . .

“Puddin is going to my mother-in-law. He will be the only furry baby in a great big huge house that is full of love. He does however have 3 feathered brothers!” a member of a rescue group wrote on my post.

“Puddin looks just like my mother-in-law’s Morris who died a few years ago in his sleep @ 15. She loves cats and wanted another but due to retirement now could not afford. I will be sponsoring Puddin for life at her house, vetting each year, food and litter. This has made her so very happy!”

What could be a better happy ending? One person wants to rescue but doesn’t have room, another person wants a cat but can’t really afford one. The solution—working together for the good of all involved, and the kitty has a home, the rescuer is happy to help the cat, and someone who really wants a feline companion has one with the generosity of her daughter-in-law.

Puddin’s story began in March when a friend in animal rescue posted the above photo of Puddin and a plea for a foster or adoption. Puddin’s human had died suddenly and apparently alone, and he was in the home when it happened. There was no one to take the little guy but Puddin’s rescuer was called, and while she has a houseful she couldn’t see this frightened but gentle cat left behind. Pets in this situation, where no family, friend or neighbor can take them, may be taken to the nearest shelter, or animal control is called, or sometimes they escape and are lost. Because of their trauma at the loss and sudden change in their life they are frightened and act out, like Baxter and Bailey. This can be a death sentence if it determines cats as “unadoptable”, but Puddin was lucky—the long-time animal rescuer who was involved scooped him up to take him home.

“Friendly, loving, soft as a rose petal!” she said in one of her first posts about him in a rescue group. Everyone remarked on those lovely orange eyes and passed the story along. Young, friendly and confident after leaving the chaos of his home, Puddin went to stay in a foster home but was confined to a bathroom. We began sharing Puddin’s photo and story, and nearly a month went by.

“I knew she wanted a cat and couldn’t afford and poor Puddin’s story was killing me,” Puddin’s adopter said. “I have a houseful already and foster momma and babies. So, I asked ‘mom’ to foster Puddin and I would cover expenses, she was psyched.”

But the story takes another turn…

“Before I could leave she said, ‘Well what will I do if they come take my cat since he is only a foster?’ So we went to forever home PDQ! She has been so happy since!” she finished.

The woman who arranged this with her mother-in-law is already pretty busy with caring for cats, currently fostering a mother cat and her four kittens, along with caring for five of her own and a 70 pound pit bull. Last year she was able to bottle feed kittens but neither she nor her boyfriend can carry the overnight feedings so they foster mother cats with kittens and older cats.

“Tiny house full of love,” she says. “I started rescuing two years ago when I found a feral mom with kittens at my new work. We bottle fed her litter of eight, shots, Speuter, illnesses, good homes last summer.”

Her current foster cat was frightened and hissing when she arrived and is still cautious, but learning to trust. “I will be keeping this mom I named Dory,” she said. “She is semi-feral, she needs to stay with me—we have a love going on now.” It’s hard not to fall in love with a cat who learns to trust you!

And she added about the cat who got her started in rescue, “I cannot catch my feral at work. Two years and no luck. She watched me trap her kittens, now she’s too smart. I’m going to borrow a drop trap learn to use. Have high hopes!”

Can you sponsor an adoption, or help someone, especially a retired or senior household adopt a kitty? Keep that in mind when you are looking for potential homes.


Can’t adopt? Foster! Can’t foster? Donate or volunteer.

There are so many ways you can help cats who need homes and care. You may not have room to adopt another cat, but can foster a cat or kitten for a few weeks. If not that, you can volunteer at a shelter or with a rescue, or donate. You do this because you love your cat, and by doing so you help all cats. No matter which of these actions you take, you help to save a life, and make life better for all cats.

  • Adopt one of the cats I’ve posted here, or from any shelter or rescue near you, or from Petfinder, to open up a space for another cat to be rescued and fostered.
  • Offer to foster cats or kittens for a shelter or rescue near you.
  • Volunteer at a shelter or rescue.
  • Find a group of volunteers who work with homeless cats and help them with their efforts.
  • Donate to a shelter or rescue near you.

If you can foster kittens or adults cats to help prepare them for a forever home, please run to your nearest shelter and find a cat who needs you! Anyone can help with this effort at any level, even if all you do is donate to a shelter or rescue so they can help to pay for the food or medications needed for their foster, or the spay/neuter/veterinary care during a clinic.

Need to know more? Read Fostering for Your Shelter and Fostering Saves Lives

The cats I’ve featured recently are from or were assisted by these rescues, shelters and organizations, though these are by no means the only organizations who are out there helping cats and other animals:

Frankie’s Friends

FosterCat, Inc.

The Homeless Cat Management Team

The Animal Rescue League and Wildlife Center of Western Pennsylvania

The Western Pennsylvania Humane Society

In Care of Cats


Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

cats for adoption


All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

5 thoughts on “Adopted: Puddin Steps into Another Heart

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  • Paulette Smith

    SO HAPPY FOR PUDDIN

    Reply
  • I’m so happy to hear that Puddin’ got adopted! As you know, my most recent furkids (Zora, Ginger and Travis) came to live with me because my ex-husband passed away. They were lucky – they had a place to go. Many cats and dogs are not so lucky and end up in shelters, which is just horrible because they’ve already gone through one traumatic experience (losing their owner). Lucky for Puddin’ there are kind-hearted people who were will to rescue him and find him a forever home!

    Reply
    • Vicki, the more I think about it, the more I think we bloggers need to focus on this issue.

      Reply

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