A year ago today, a small black kitten showed up in front of our garage in the early, dark hours of the morning. Already a seven cat home, we were not looking to expand our feline family. But it was meant to be and this little guy who we named Shadow is now celebrating his first Gotcha Day with us. We could have never predicted the crazy world we live in now back then, but we could predict Shadow would fill our hearts with love and joy.

Happy first Gotcha Day Shadow – you’ve turned into a gorgeous and gregarious handsome panther cat and here’s to hoping for many, many more years together!

My first photo with Shadow in November 2019. He’s gotten so big since then!

October is National Black Cat Awareness Month* and last Saturday (aka Caturday) to promote the cause, I shared a photo on several Facebook pages dedicated to black cats of my black cat rescue, Shadow, with the brief caption, “Celebrate! The Beautiful Black Cat.” The picture was simple – a closeup of him with an uncluttered, softened background, with my equally simple call to action in the text of the post: “October is Black Cat Awareness Month, so let’s celebrate this Caturday by sharing the awesomeness of black cats with pictures of your beauties today! This lovely model is our rescue, Shadow, who showed up at our doorstep about a year ago.” Read more

Then and now. Our Jazmine has matured into such a beautiful adult cat.

Seven years. Our precious, beautiful, and loving ginger baby, Jazmine, is seven years old today. When Dan and I first came upon her at Global Pet Expo in March of 2014 at the Imperial Cat booth as a rescue kitten up for adoption, there was an initial internal struggle of “do we,” or “don’t we,” despite her melting our hearts instantly upon looking at her sweet face. It wasn’t so much because we didn’t want to, it was more a matter of me specifically. We had recently lost our beloved Ragdoll, Jazz, in 2013 and I didn’t know if I was mentally ready for another cat in my life or acclimating it to our seven other residing cats in an already fragile cat dynamic, no matter how ridiculously adorable this kitten was. Read more

Happy 1st birthday dear Shadow!

The new journey started on November 8th, 2019, at 5:45 a.m. I know this because that’s 10 minutes after my then seven cats began the unnecessary preamble of meows and paw pats to my face to get me out of bed at 5:35 a.m. to feed them breakfast. It takes me about 10 minutes to accommodate the individual feeding needs of each of them before I plunk their bowls on the floor and move on to my next task of servitude, scooping their litter boxes and bringing the bagged contents to the trash bin in the garage. Read more

The pain is real folks, the pain is real…

I’ve been MIA for quite a while now – no time to blog like I used to, but I thought it would be nice to share a brief update on Shadow for Sunday-Selfie. He’s been with us nearly 4 months now – clearly a part of our family – with the reaction of his permanent residence still receiving mixed reviews. Dan and me, that’s easy, we love the guy with his bold personality and charming ways. The other seven cats, still, not so much. Read more