She was adopted in Tallahassee, my first year away in college. My roommates and I had talked about looking for a kitty and decided to peek in the paper. We found an ad, free to a good home, 6 month old kitten, and a phone number. Turned out she was from Miami, her person moving to a cat free apartment. The girl had left the kitten with her folks, and they didn't want a cat. So we took a drive and met this sweet little kitten! There was no doubt, this cat was mine from the start.
I loved Rolling Stone magazine back then...read them from cover to cover repeatedly. We had no name for our new little kitten yet- just calling her kitty. I remember reading down the contents page in one Rolling Stone, looking at the authors of the articles...and saw the name Jaffe. It was someone's last name- but it fit this little cat. So- Jaffe she was dubbed!
She was before the husband and kids. She was my best friend and confidant supporting me through art school and boyfriend debacles. She was the best!
I remember the very first time my now husband (back then, guy I was dating) had kitty crawl up on his lap and curl up in a ball. He was so excited kitty liked him. It was very sweet!
One thing I have learned to accept about life is that it doesn't last forever. After loosing grandparents, uncles and aunts, even my father...I have made peace with death. It's inevitable- and we should all enjoy every day we have together with people we love!
So even though we were sad to have kitty leave us...we new that it was time to love someone new. A family isn't complete without a small furry friend to share life with. We thought, maybe a dog this time.
We started on the web...looking up breeds of dogs. What would be good for our little family, for our two boys under 10. We decided the best route would be to adopt a rescue dog. No puppy mills for us!
We looked at the pages of rescue sites in our area...even the pound. We decided on A Second Chance Puppies and Kittens Rescue.
They have a great site that shows pictures of animals, ages, any medical problems and even info about the breed. We loved this site! You could tell by the little snippets of information they wrote about the animals, that the foster homes and volunteers really cared about the animals.
Looking on the site one night, we saw a beautiful little spotty pup...a Catahoula Leopard Dog mix??? What??? We had no idea what that was...but read up about them and said- yes, this is the dog for us.
Isn't she a cutie! We fell in love immediately!
We filled out an application for adoption and the next week went to go meet her. She was nervous, and scared- and so were we...but we scrubbed her and new she was meant to be part of our family from the minute we saw her.
Jump to today...we have had her for only a month, but it feels like she has been with us always!
We loved our cat Jaffe for 21 wonderful years...and plan on doing the same with Bianca, our new pup. Adopting an animal in need of a family really comes down to discovering how much your family needs them too!
Go adopt a dog or a cat...it will make you happy, make them happy, and make life better all around!
~Casey
***If you are thinking of adding a pet to your home, please consider adopting a shelter or rescue animal. Second Chance is a fabulous example of people who care about all animals, and go through hoops to make sure all of their rescues find good homes. There are rescue groups in every city. Just google rescue dogs/cats in your area and find your perfect match***
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