My boyfriend and I had been living together for 24 hours before we went to The Humane Society together to get the one thing that had been missing from our previous apartments: a cat. We walked all around the cages cooing at the cats until my eye was caught by a long tuft of tawny fur curled right up against the cage door like he was just waiting for someone to come along and pet him while he dozed all alone.
The comments on the cage said things like "Very affectionate," "Jumped right in my arms while I was grooming him," and "A REAL PRIZE!!". We didn't need to see anything else. The workers at The Humane Society weren't sure how long he had been out on the street, and when we got him home (after changing his name from "Tani" to "Vern" after the cab driver who helped us get him there), we realized this sweet little guy had seen some action. He was so skinny we could feel every rib through his mangy fur and he had scratch marks on his nose and what looked like a bite or two on his ear. To top it off, he developed a nasty cold soon after, and had to be fed with a syringe to get food and water into him. None of this stopped him from making himself at home immediately and charming everyone with his hilarious personality.
He's become the surrogate pet to most of my family who, for one reason or another, are unable to keep a cat of their own. So now, when he's not receiving toys and affection from multiple sources, Vern spends most of his days sleeping in sunbeams, chasing phantom insects, dozing on pillows, hitting us up for scraps of yogurt (his favourite food), napping on chairs and trying to lick everybody's hair!
Thank you to everyone at THS for your hard work and dedication to giving animals like Vern a second chance at a happy life with nothing better to do all day than be loved.
