Welcome Home Dasher

During the first four weeks after Walker passed away, my husband kept dropping hints about wanting another cat.  I, of course, was not ready to give my heart away again and was worried that I wouldn't be a good mama to another cat by expecting him to be just like Walker.  We agreed that we would wait until I was ready, but I had no idea how I would know when that time came.  Not to mention, I was enjoying the special one-on-one time I was getting to spend with Tucker.

There was a big cat adoption event scheduled for Saturday & Sunday last weekend and my husband really wanted to go, but knew that if I wasn't ready he wouldn't force the issue.  I knew we weren't going based on the fact that a week prior, I had stopped into our local Petco and there was a small local group doing an adoption event.  As I entered the store a small, black kitten made eye contact with me and I broke down in tears.  I wasn't even 5 steps into Petco and I was crying.  After explaining my tears to one of the girls working the event, I left the store totally humiliated.  I got to my car, buried my head in my hands and cried. 

Periodically, I log onto petfinder.com.  I like to keep tabs on the pit bull counts at our local shelters so we can donate needed items, visit with them and be the best ambassador for the breed that we can be.  Last Thursday, I was doing just that, when I found myself doing a search for black cats in my area.  I scrolled through dozens of cats (mostly kittens) when I stopped on the profile of one particular cat named "Six".  I stared at his profile picture for what seemed like an eternity before I opened it.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much information listed.

I quickly realized what I was doing and reminded myself that I'm not ready for another cat and exited the site immediately.  But, as the afternoon dragged on I could not stop thinking about this cat named Six. I knew that even if I was ready for another cat, that I would want it to be a kitten and Six was clearly not a kitten from the looks of his profile picture.  This didn't stop me from obsessing over him for the next couple hours.  Before I knew what I was doing I was on the phone with the animal shelter. 

I was told that Six had been in the shelter since April 1, 2011 and that nobody had showed any interest in him the entire time he had been there.  They take him to every adoption event, but have never had any luck finding his forever home.  She explained to me the stigma around black cats and gave me some numbers on the percentage of black cats that are adopted in the US and my heart broke.  I told her my story of Tucker & Walker and explained my love for black cats. She said Six was about 2-3 years old, very friendly and would get along great with other pets.

Mere seconds after hanging up from her I called my husband and told him about this cat named Six and how he already had a piece of my heart.  I cried over the thought of any animal living in the shelter for that long.  My husband I agreed that we would make a trip to the shelter over the weekend and pay Six a visit.  

Ironically, my husband I both had the same idea.  Within a 1/2 hour of hanging up from him, I left work and was in the car headed to the shelter.  I called him when I was about 20 minutes away from the shelter and told him what I was doing.  He laughed and explained to me that he was already at the shelter and holding Six in his arms!

I arrived at the shelter and met my husband in the parking lot.  I was talking a mile a minute and asking a million questions about the cat.  I was still nervous about the thought of another pet and my stomach was in knots.

Long story short....We adopted Six the very next day!  After 20 months of living in the shelter, he is finally HOME!

The name "Six" was not suitable for us and the shelter said with that many cats living together at the shelter that he didn't answer to that name (or any name) and we could change it if we preferred.

Meet Dasher (named after Santa's reindeer, of course)

And here is Tucker and Dasher meeting for the first time.  They were rubbing on each other and my heart melted.  Another confirmation that we did the right thing by bringing "Six" into our lives.