NATIONAL PET WEEK STORY: Calla and Eliza

Always the first full week in May, National Pet Week^® is dedicated to celebrating the more than 200 million pets that enrich our lives each and every day. Throughout the course of the year, GTHS features our adopted pets. This week, we polled our staff at the Shelter to provide stories about how their very own GTHS adopted pet enriches their lives 🙂

CALLA AND ELIZA

A little while ago, I sat down to do another a facebook post on a happy adoption story from GTHS. We get them on a regular basis and we all LOVE them…..so keep them coming!

Here I am writing away about our adorable GTHS Alumni and their families when it struck me….I have a little GTHS Alumni of my own! Of course, my next thought was to share her story.

Eliza came to GTHS in Sept 2013 as a wee-kitten with her brothers and sisters. Her siblings were scooped up quickly, but for some odd reason, little Eliza stayed at the shelter a bit longer. She was the one in the cat room that ran the fastest to your feet when you walked in the door. The one that tried to climb you like a very tallllllll cat tree. The one that purrrrrrred louder than all 40 cats combined and seemed to never let you go. Over time, and many visits into the cat room, Eliza won my heart…..more accurately…..grabbed it between her little paws and never let go. I took her home on Feb 28, 2014 to meet her new fur-sister and fur-brother, and needless to say, hilarity ensued.

A little bit about her new siblings……Seven years ago I rescued a little, almost frozen solid, white kitten from a cow barn and named him Abby (yes, I thought he was a girl and the name stuck). This guy has a personality and a half, and way more than 9 lives. Then, four years ago, I opened the garbage can at the barn where my horse is, and out popped a brown tabby. Quickly named Zoe, this one is “daddy’s girl” and was aptly nicknamed “floosie” as she is quick to find the lap of any guy who enters the house.

Upon joining the cat-pack, Eliza quickly proved herself to have a massive personality of her own. She was FULL of energy, didn’t follow the same “bed-time at 10pm” pattern as the other two, and definitely wanted attention….attention….and more attention. We bought automated toys, catnip, cat scratchers and more to keep her busy. Instead she chose to swing off the blinds, play “catch me if you can” across the kitchen counters, and got into EVERYTHING! Thankfully, after some time and settling in, we slowly taught her that kitchen counters are not for cats (ok…still working on that one), there are better things to play with than the blinds (most of the time), and bed-time at 10pm really is amazing.

When I first approached my husband and said those three little words….”I want her”…..he thought I was crazy. We already had two cats that got along so well. What if a third disrupted that? After some convincing *read whining and begging….I’ll be honest* he was convinced. I knew I could eventually break him! And needless to say, within 24 hrs….he was in L-O-V-E.

Taking a third bundle of fur into the house has taught me a lot…..

It truly is a LOT of work (don’t think for a minute that cats are always easy)
They’ll try your patience at times (especially when swinging from the blinds and chewing through the third phone charger you’ve purchased in a month)
They’ll get into things and act naughty (like tip over every bathroom garbage pail in the house…..at least once per day)
But the reward and love you get in return is SO worth it

Eliza now joins the 5am pack-run around the house…..plays hide and seek with her sister (she doesn’t do it well, as she “talks” the entire time while hiding)…..wrestles with her brother (and wins)…..sits on the bathroom counter looking at me funny while I brush my teeth…..and does countless other things that make me laugh every day. Most importantly, she provides a CRAZY amount of joy and love in my life. I can’t remember what it was like without her.

So, from one animal lover to the next……

For those that have adopted….thank you. For those that are considering it….it is absolutely worth it. And for all of you who are interested in seeing how my little one is doing today….check out her pictures below 🙂 (I’ll admit….I haven’t mastered the art of taking pictures of a black cat!)

Thanks for reading!

Calla, Manager of Marketing, Communications and Resource Development

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