Rescue Stories: Annie - How a Poster Changed Her Life

Today we are sharing  the rescue story of Annie! Annie is the star of Annie's House Co-Starring Pierrot and we're very excited she chose to share her story with us.
Lola


In August 2011, my husband and I were going about our daily lives. We lived in California and had two ailing senior kitties that required quite a bit of care. One day, my husband went to get the mail and saw a picture posted of an orange tabby girl named Annie stating that her owners were moving and they weren't taking her with them. As much as I love cats and have a heart for all the homeless ones, I was really surprised at my husband. Not only did we have the two senior kitties, we were in a small apartment and we had one cat more than the apartments' one-cat-per-household rule. We were not looking for a third kitty. He brought her into our lives, however, by bringing that picture home.

I contacted the person listed on the ad and she said they were going to put Annie in a shelter if they couldn't find her a home but all the no-kill shelters were full. We decided to take her as an interim foster solution and try to place her in another home.

Beautiful Annie.

We brought Annie home. She was terrified. She had never lived with other cats. She spent most of her time under the bed or desperately trying to find a hiding place. It was heartbreaking to see her fear. The next day she urinated blood in the bathtub and was constantly going to the litter box. I took her to the vet and found out on that first car ride that she gets carsick. She also gets horribly stressed by vet visits. After several vet visits and tests and an ultrasound, two bladder stones were discovered that needed to be surgically removed.  We received some help from the most generous outpouring of love from people in the blogosphere, some we didn't even know. I will never, as long as I live, ever forget the kindness so many showed us.

Annie after her surgery.

Looking back at this time of bringing Annie home and looking at those early pictures, I once again am in admiration of her courage.  She was so frightened yet brave too. She was very scared of our two resident cats, yet she risked, in her mind, all those many, many trips to the litter box from her hiding place. I remember how happy she was when I took her home after she had her surgery and spent the night at the vet's. It was then that I told her that she was home and we were her family and we loved her.

Annie enjoying life.

Three and half years later, there's rarely a day that goes by that she doesn't make me smile. She has so many endearing ways about her.  She’s gotten over a lot of her fears and anxieties but it’s taken quite some time. I love seeing her happy and content, especially in light of the tough times she had before coming to live with us. She helped me with my grief over losing our two dear senior kitties. She’s not a lap kitty but she loves tummy rubs and ear scratches and will purr and purr. She’s lived in California, Texas and now Pennsylvania. She likes to spend her days looking out the window and napping in the sunshine. She loves her food (a little too much) and treats. I love her very much and I’m so happy that she’s a part of our family. 

Vicki
Pennsylvania