Story submitted by Adrianna and Lou.
This is our story of how Bobbi and the Strays helped us meet our wonderful Crookshanks.
About two and a half years ago, the cat I grew up with, Frisky, died at the age of 15. He had not been sick for long, only a few months, but his death was a big shock for me. I had grown up with Frisky since I was 9 years old, and he had been my best friend all my life since that time. I was heartbroken over it, especially since he had been getting better right before he died. It took me a very long time to stop crying every night over him.
About a year after Frisky had passed on, my boyfriend Lou and I were going to dinner at Atlas Park when we saw Bobbi and the Strays and decided to go in and just look at and pet a few of the cats. It was hard at first, I hadn’t been around many cats since Frisky had died, and I didn’t know how I would feel. We both were feeling pretty awful about Frisky and were going to leave when Lou turned to me and said “Look at this cat, she’s got the most amazing coloring! She’s so pretty.” So, I came over to the cage and as soon as she turned around and our eyes met, I fell in love with her. Bobbi and the Strays was calling her “Lily” at the time. I put my fingers into her cage and she came right up to me and started rubbing her cheeks all over my hands. We stood there for thirty minutes just absolutely in awe of how beautiful and sweet this cat was.
When we left to go to dinner I cried to have to leave her there. All we talked about over dinner was how beautiful and sweet she was to us. It felt like a pit in my stomach to have to drive away after dinner and not be taking her home. I pushed it to the back of my mind, because at the time… Lou and I were getting ready to move to New Jersey together and we were both completely unable to house a pet.
A few weeks passed, we were packing and our lives were in the chaos of pre-moving with boxes and belongings everywhere, when we decided to go out to dinner again to get away from the stress. We ended up at Atlas Park again and as we were walking past, who do we happen to see in the window of Bobbi and the Strays? Lily! The same cat that we had adored a few weeks earlier. We went inside and said hello to her and afterwards it was just awful to leave again. We still had not moved yet, and it would be another month until our new apartment would be done getting renovated and inspected. But I knew that she was meant to be in my life.
That night when we got home, I looked up Bobbi & the Strays on the internet and found them and Lily’s posting. I sent a very long email describing our situation and our love for this cat. I felt, at that point, that I didn’t care what I had to do, pay, or who I had to speak to and convince that when I was in my new home, she was meant to be part of our family. Lily was meant to be our cat.
A day later I received a reply from Sandy, saying that she didn’t know how long they could hold off on adopting her, but that I should come and visit her and that we would play things by ear. Well, I was certainly up for that!
The first time Lou and I visited Lily we met Debbie, and I must say that I am forever grateful to Debbie for the month she spent coming into the shelter after hours one, two, sometimes three times a week for five weeks straight just to let us spend some time with Lily. Over the course of that month we got to know her so much better. We found out what she liked, didn’t like, what made her grumpy, what made her happy, and we were able to prepare to bring her home so much better because of it. I’m positive that those visits made her transition (not to mention the hour and a half long car ride to NJ!) much, much easier.
Finally, in the beginning of October of 2008, we brought Lily home and re-named her Crookshanks. She is the best cat one could ever hope for. She is sweet, confident, smart, talkative, beautiful, well behaved, and all around “purrr”fect cat. In the past year and a half she has gone on a well needed diet, gotten plenty of exercise, come out of her shell so much, and been spoiled rotten. She proudly rests her paws on two cat trees and a home that is entirely hers… (we live there too!!)
Thank you Bobbi, Sandy and Debbie for all of your help and understanding. But what we are the most grateful for is that all of you opened our hearts again after a horrible loss, and brought our wonderful girl Crookshanks into our lives!
