It Was Just Meant to Be, Missy!

If there is one thing we’ve learned during the seven years since FosterCat began to offer kitties for adoption, it’s that you just can’t predict what will happen in the adoption process. Sometimes we have thought a certain cat would be difficult to place and she has been adopted within hours of arrival at the PetSmart adoption center. Sometimes we’ve thought a cat would be scooped up right away and it has taken months for the right person to come along.

Of course, just the normal circumstances of life play an important role in the process. A family’s beloved cat has passed away and they are ready to open their hearts and home to another. A child’s persistent pleading has finally worn her parents down. A family has recently adopted and has realized that kitty needs a playmate. But the fact of the matter is that a lot of it is just a matter of pure chemistry — that inexplicable bond that forms almost instantly when eye meets eye or paw touches hand.

That was certainly what happened with Jeanne and Missy. Jeanne had been a “dog person” all of her life and had never really known or interacted with cats. But when she saw Missy at the Northway Mall PetSmart, something just clicked.

Missy was eight years old when her owners dumped her at the Humane Society, because they were moving. One of our foster parents brought her home last summer, in response to their plea to us for help during the height of kitten season, when they often take in 200 to 250 cats and kittens per week! Placing a two year old, let alone eight year old cat, when it is surrounded by cages full of cute little kittens cuddling and carousing with their litter mates is nigh unto impossible, so Missy relaxed in her foster home until winter and kitten season had passed. Then along came Jeanne.

Jeanne was a regular at the Northway PetsMart, always shopping for something to bring home to her two Chihuahuas, Mocha and Espresso. She certainly had not gone there that February day to adopt a cat. But something about Missy just struck her. She went back to see her again the next day and that was it.

It has been, as they say, a match made in heaven. Missy Matilda has become a much beloved member of the family, graciously accepting (well, at least tolerating) her canine siblings, presenting herself for regular belly rubs and brushing sessions and enjoying her solitary quiet times in the finished basement, all the while earning her owners’ acclamation as the world’s most perfect cat.

A few weeks ago I was reading one Sunday evening, when the phone rang. It was Jeanne calling and the anxiety in her voice was palpable. Somehow Missy had gotten up into the rafters in the basement and from there to the space between the interior and exterior walls. Jeanne had called the police and the fire department and they had been searching for Missy for hours. They could hear her, but couldn’t pinpoint her location – even after cutting a half dozen large holes in the drywall. Did I have any suggestions? “We just have to find her!”

I was in the midst of suggesting that they turn out the lights and go upstairs and wait to see if Missy would just come out on her own if things got quiet, when Jeanne’s husband yelled from the basement that Missy had just appeared, seemingly unperturbed and unscathed by her exploratory expedition.

Jeanne was ecstatic, to say the least. “I told my husband I didn’t care how many holes we had to cut, or how much it would cost to fix, we just had to get our Missy out of there. I just don’t know what I’d do without her!”

Well, all’s well that ends well - at least from Jeanne’s perspective. Missy isn’t so happy that her private salon is now off limits, but we expect she will come to terms with it in time.

One thing we do know for certain - Missy will never want for love again. She’s found her home and she won’t ever find herself in a cage again. It was just meant to be!