This Father’s Day, we wanted to share with you an adoption story – or a Pet-Papa story – that warmed our hearts here at PAWS. Every year, we help around 3,000 Washington residents find their fur-family members, but this recent adoption success had us all particularly watery-eyed.
When animals in our care find their forever homes, it’s an emotional moment for us. It means that the work we’ve done to nurture and shelter that animal has allowed a potential adopter to see the wonderfulness that we see in that animal, and choose them as part of their family.
Just shy of 14 years old, tabby cat Cindy Lou was having a truly hard time finding long-term love and security. She was a PAWS regular, meaning that she has stayed with us three times since 2011.
On two separate occasions she came to us because her guardians let her outside without proper supervision and she was left to fend for herself. A highly social kitty, Cindy Lou was roaming an apartment complex for at least a couple of years before she arrived at PAWS the first time. We were happy then to reunite her with her guardians, but she returned again to PAWS as a lost cat. Again, she was reunited with her family, and PAWS counseled the family on how to keep her safely confined and wear proper identification. When she came to us once more at the beginning of this year, her guardians had vanished.
Now, she had no one at all.
In another part of Seattle, William was looking at life as a widower and wondering what his future would hold without his beloved wife. He had recently lost his elderly cat – whom he had adopted from PAWS – to old age, and the halls of his home felt emptier than ever before.
Curious, William strolled over to Cat City in Seattle’s U-District and immediately noticed Cindy Lou. PAWS’ unique Cat City layout of colony rooms allowed William to interact with all the cats in their familiar surroundings. Cindy Lou was especially drawn to William and it didn’t take much for her to make her choice known. Cindy Lou wanted William.
William felt the exact same way.
We snapped this pic of the two of them knowing full well that this was a Cat City match like no other.
Happy Pet-Papa Day to William, and to all the other pet-papas caring for their fur-families this weekend.