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| Name: |
Rosita
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Age: |
Ten years old
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| Gender: |
Female
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Kind: |
Tuxedo Cat
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| Home: |
West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
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Nine years ago I had taken in too many strays and ferals from my neighborhood streets. As most were very shy, the no-kill shelter didn't want them. Then one night two dear friends of mine showed up at my door with an older kitten (around 7 months old) they had found outside a convenience store, and I had to say yes. She was not particularly friendly and was of course very scared. It became clear that she really disliked other cats, so landing in my house was bad luck for her. (For anyone reading this thinking I could have placed her elsewhere, it's extremely difficult to place a shy, unsocialized cat in a home, especially when they are not young kittens. No one wants them, and rescues are full to the brim with friendly, social kittens and cats.)
To tell you the truth, I can't even really remember Rosita's first years here, except that she needed several steroid shots for stomatitis and mouth pain, no doubt exacerbated by stress.
Fast forward a handful of years, and I had to put down my beloved Jack, the only cat allowed to sleep in my bedroom with the dogs and me. I think Rosita found the space herself, and since then she's never left. We had our problems (a terrible flea problem one year) and when Rosita is unhappy she pees on the bed or directly on my head. That happened about seven times in all, but once it was twice in one night. It's really awful to have to leap up and strip the bed as fast as you can, then shower, then go back to bed and it happens again.
Then we finally seemed to reach a good place! I've seen wonderful growth that includes a bit of playtime (nothing crazy), her loving affection (as long as you stay in the front half of her body), and even making biscuits! That kneading just happened within the last year. She sleeps on my pillow or the one next to me, and during the day when all the others (I have a perfectly manageable dozen now) come in to lie on my bed, she goes to a cat bed under my dresser. She's still a testy girl who gets annoyed easily and is a drama queen when another cat goes near her, but we are great friends now. I love her. She's lying next to me touching my arm as I type this. My Rosita Zita Zu!
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