A Recent Success Story for a Less Adoptable Cat

Guest blogger Bonnie Still, one of Wayside Waifs' fantastic staffers, agreed to take Mya's dictation for this story. Many thanks, Bonnie!
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This is post # 8 in a series. To read post #7, you can visit Sebastian's blog at www.seabasscat.com.   
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Meow, my name is Mya. I'm a 6 yr old gorgeous female Tuxedo with big beautiful eyes. I was just recently adopted and wanted to tell you my story.

Now, you may be wondering why such a beautiful feline such as myself would be considered "less adoptable". Well, I'm 6 yrs old. To a lot of people, I'm old. The other reason was because of my behavior when I had to stay at Wayside Waifs. You see, a year ago, last August, my owner died. Family took me in, but one of them turned out to be allergic. So, they surrendered me to Wayside Waifs.

In the beginning, I was very sweet and friendly, everyone could pet me and I enjoyed their company. By the time I was moved to the adoption floor, I got sick - an Upper Respiratory Virus, which is common in shelters and often caused by stress. Staff and volunteers started to notice how unhappy I felt. Those that could interact with me, stopped. It wasn't because they didn't want to be with me, they just weren't sure about my behavior. I was getting swatty towards them because I thought they were going to give me more of that icky medicine.

I was stressed, and wanted to go home. I didn't like the other cats, I didn't like the noise, I didn't like that when people came to see me that they would leave without me.

Finally, 9 months later, I was adopted! I was so happy! But, it was not meant to be, and I was returned. When I came back, one of the staff members was very concerned for me. She had hated to see me decline for 9 months, and didn't want me to go through it again. So she fostered me until I was adopted. This was fairly new for the shelter! That meant I was even more of a challenge to get adopted because I was only on their Website.

My foster Mom really helped me to be my true self and to relax - I even enjoyed bellyrubs! I was 6 yrs old and had no idea what to do with a toy, but I learned, and then all I wanted to do was play. There was no stress, just a warm, quiet place to stay with my new friend who took very good care of me.

Mya, chillin'
(photo courtesy Catherine L. Sherman)

But, guess what? After nearly 3 months with my foster mom, I was adopted to a wonderful family who really understood me, and wanted to give me a good home. My fave spot is on their bed, it's so comfy! We are still learning about each other, but of all the cats needing a home, they wanted ME. That made me feel very special and loved.

They believe every cat deserves a home, even one that can be cranky. Thank you to everyone that took good care of me, I will never forget you.