Big Pete, Sweet Pete, Only Pete

DCIN doesn't have the luxury of knowing our cats before we can adopt them out. Some rescues have a network of foster homes or even a brick and mortar location, but we don't. DCIN is really the dream of one woman who knew there was a need and she found a way.

The drawback to this is we can't tell you if a kitty will be good with your kids or not eat your goldfish, we have only what the previous owner told us, or the vet or the shelter they surrendered the kitty to. Sometimes there's no information at all, and sometimes the person can't answer those questions because they didn't have kids or a goldfish.

Sweet Pete is a very good kitty, a loving and sweet young gentleman, but you only see that when he's alone, with the other cats he's aggressive. Alone with just his foster mom he's amazing, even a relative that's not a cat person remarked that he's super cool.

I cannot tell you how many times I've adopted cats that were labeled one way and were completely different in my home. I used to think the shelter folks were nuts, how could they think my sweet cat needed to be an only. But yesterday I was emailing a friend back and forth about cats and integration and she told me that one cat she came into contact with, another shelter person said the cat was nice and sweet, but when she went to meet the cat, the cat hated her.

She realized the scent of her own cats on her made that cat tense and back away from her. That's when I realized maybe these shelter folks do know what their talking about, I'm the one that needs to learn more about this. I will try to learn more, but this still doesn't help DCIN much when we can't meet these cats and see for ourselves what they are like.

So back to this young man, originally named Biggie, renamed Big Pete by his adopted mom, he went off insulin quickly. But the happy story didn't end there. A few months later we learned that he was not getting on well with her dogs and cats, the dogs (Boston Terrorizers) were chasing him and the cats seemed afraid of him. With all of that going on she still wanted us to know that he was loving and thrives on affection. By October we had to move him fast, he was living in a sunroom, but in New England those sunrooms become freezers. Thankfully another person came forward to foster Big Pete and she loves him. She loves him so much she renamed him Sweet Pete. She loves him so much she let us put her in contact with Beth, our new Behavior Consultant because even though she loves him, he didn't love her cats and was being very naughty and difficult.

Beth's knowledge of animal behavior and the way she can communicate with people is inspiring, probably why she can run her own business that revolves around pets and their people, kind of like DCIN and how we help diabetic cats and their people. Makes her a perfect fit, but I digress. Yes, I digress because I hate writing this. I don't hate writing about Sweet Pete but about any kitty that needs a home, I want them to be perfect and I want there never to be a need for any type of rescue. After Beth worked with Sweet Pete and his mom, we learned it's true... he needs to be an only..."Only Pete." He has proven to be a very loving, fluffball of charm and super cool, he is the perfect pet for someone, but that someone must not have another cat. One thing I do like writing is that he is off insulin, yep, no shots necessary here, just good food and good love.

So, how do we find a home for Pete, someone who will love having a wonderful cat who's been through a lot and really deserves his own forever home? He's paid his dues, he's been someone's cat, then a foster, then a shelter cat, back to being a person's kitty, back to foster. Come on... that's more than enough for any kitty, but this guy is young, we don't know his exact age but he looks like he's barely in the double digits. So tell me, how can we help this little man, where do we find his person who we know is out there just waiting for him?

(Here's a great holiday message featuring Sweet Pete, but if it doesn't play well in FireFox, try Internet Explorer. ~V)