What a beautiful story.
We adopted a senior dog many years ago, and it was the best decision we ever made. Yes, our time with him was a little shorter, but he was the most wonderful addition to our family. Smartest dog, too. His name was Albert, and he had such amazing spatial intelligence I once commented to him, “Well, you ARE a regular old Einstein!”
He reacted with such shock, and amazement, it was almost as if he was thinking, “These humans know my other name!”
His former owners stated at the shelter, “We just didn’t want him anymore...”
Their loss, our gain.
“We adopted a senior dog many years ago, and it was the best decision we ever made.”
Albert! :)
We did the same with a pair of Lady Basset Hounds. A woman that used to work for me, went on to become a Vet Tech, and I used the vet clinic where she worked. She called one day to tell me that one of their customers died unexpectedly, and would I be interested in adopting her two older dogs. Belle and Pearl were both about 11 years old at the time.
They were ‘City Dogs’ so being allowed to wander off-leash was probably their favorite part of moving to my farm. Our Beagle just loved ‘his girls’ so much!
We lost them both within 3 years, though. Pearl had lymphoma and Belle ended up with a bad disc which paralyzed her.
I like to think that the last few years of their lives, being allowed to ‘just be dogs’ were their happiest.
“We just didn’t want him anymore...”
That’s terrible! I can’t even imagine treating a pet that way. Those people are missing something in their genetic makeup.
My sister just recently found a near dead cat on her front porch. It was starving to death. It could hardly raise its head. She took it in and revived it with food and water. A few days later they took it to the vet and it needed a tooth removed and tick pulled out of its ear but was basically OK. The vet said it was about 10-11 years old. And they found out he’s deaf but they named him Thomas and now he’s a terrific companion for my BIL who has Lewey Body disease.
So glad you rescued him. What kind of a person gives up a family member?
Hey Mermaid Girl. Great to hear of your amazing spatially intelligent cat, Albert.
Your post immediately called to mind T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Naming of Cats. Here’s a beautiful reading of that scrumptious delight to the ear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Di2LLY45g
And the text: https://poets.org/poem/naming-cats