From commentor Donnah:
We share our home with two cats and a dog, and two years ago our beloved tiger kitty Jingles passed away at the age of thirteen. She was a charming kitty, and I was her main squeeze. When she died, we were left with the cat who mostly hung out with my sons, so I felt quite sad and alone.
__
I’m a trainer at our local Curves fitness club and every Christmas we choose a charity to whom we donate gifts or money raised by our members. That year we had chosen our local animal shelter, SICSA. All of our dogs and cats were shelter rescues, and SICSA does an exemplary job. It’s clean and very well run, and we didn’t have to think twice about choosing them. We were to get started collecting at the end of October, just a few weeks after Jingles had died.
__
When I went down to finalize our plans to donate items there, I was still very fragile about losing Jingles, but I told myself I would just go speak to the director and then get the heck out of there. I told her about our plans to donate and she gave me a list of items they always need, so I was feeling good about the plans.
__
Too good. I felt like maybe I should just take a peek at the cat rooms. They have several open area rooms that have doors to the outside sun rooms. They also have a couple of rooms for cats in cages. I first went to the open room and was immediately approached by a beautiful white kitty who wrapped herself around my ankles like a boa constrictor. I reached down to gather her up and one of the volunteers said, “Don’t fall in love with that one; she’s being adopted out this afternoon.” Well, that was a drag, but I visited a few other felines and while they were all sweet, none of them really felt right.
__
I went to the room where the cats stayed in cages. It is so difficult to choose a cat when in each cage there is a different face, personality, demeanor. I had told myself that I wanted a female, at least six months old, and a shorthair. That helped a little bit and I could drop out some of the cats automatically, but there were still so many to choose from!
__
A small gray kitty was curled up on a mat in her cage, gazing out with half-closed eyelids. She was all gray, every inch. Her nose pad, her whiskers, her toenails, every bit was a rich, velvety charcoal gray. I asked the attendant if I might hold her and she opened the door of the cage, warning me that the kitten had just been spayed the day before. That’s why she was so quiet.
__
I gathered her up gently and sat down in a chair with her in my lap. She relaxed immediately, softening her back against my arm and looking up at me with perfect green eyes. Well, that was it. She was mine.
__
I took her home to meet the other cat and the dog, both of whom were outraged that I had brought in another character, but they gradually accepted her. Chloe, the older cat, treated her just like a younger sibling, pushing her out of the litter box with both front paws. And she also shoved her off the bed, coming up behind her like a Ninja. But now they just get along; not friends but not hurting each other. That’s as good as it will get between them.
__
But we all love her so much. We named her Gracie, cause she’s gray, see? She might be Korat; she has so many characteristics of that breed. But no matter what her lineage is, she is a really wonderful cat. We’re so lucky we found her!
stuckinred
What a beauty!
JPL
Gracie is beautiful and she looks like she’s posing for her next starring role. It’s great that the animals are coexisting. Sometimes that’s the first step.
Linda Featheringill
Oooh! I’m a gray kitty with a black nose! The rest of the world is so jealous!
Lovely baby.
Luci
Such a lovely kitty! We really are lucky to find these glorious creatures for sure! This is a great story and it looks like a great cat too. I’m sure she has royal blood in her somewhere, as look at how regal she is. :)
Turgid Jacobian
Could You please please put the stories below the fold?
SenyorDave
Morning Yahoo tagline: “Some question pep rally atmosphere at Obama speech”.
This is the same Yahoo that has taglines for every GOP talking point? Fuck them.
PeggyAI
Purrrrty Gracie & she does look & feel just like the softest velvet. I count myself lucky to be her aunt, although she makes me sneeze if we hang out together for too long.
Buck
Gracie is absolutely beautiful.
stuckinred
@Turgid Jacobian: What is with you and that?
PeggyAI
@SenyorDave: Ugh! And the comments there – just nauseating.
gogol's wife
@stuckinred:
Yes, Gracie is gorgeous, and I wanted to compliment you on your lovely dogs but I didn’t have time to read your story until late last night. Great pictures!
stuckinred
@gogol’s wife: Thx, buncha knuckleheads!
Chinn Romney
Looks like a Russian Blue to me.
harlana
Oh my, what a beeyootiful girl!! My first thought was Russian Blue also.
donnah
Thanks to Annie L for sharing our story and to everyone’s kind comments. And hey, sis! Nice to see you here, too. You’d better post your story about Ellie the Hound Dog…
JPL
@donnah: SISCA seems like a great organization.
SiubhanDuinne
“Gracie, cause she’s gray, see?” LOL. (When I was a kid we had a dog named Waffle, because he was so waffly cute.)
Gracie is lovely. Who’s the Shmoo-ish character behind her?
:-)
ET
I bet she has wonderfully soft and silky fur.
Ash Can
Oh my. Gracie looks so much like the kitty we had when I was growing up. We took her in off the cold street as a kitten when I was 4 years old, and she finally passed away of sheer old age when I was 26. She was one of the all-time greatest cats.
JCT
Such a regal-looking puss! I like the ninja stealth bed-pushing description. One of our cats used to do that all the time. Once one of the dogs witnessed a “shove” and started barking at the aggressor, it was damn funny.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Cats with that shade of gray are always so pretty and Gracie’s no different.
Now, if she could just engage in endless discourse on libertarianism, she’d be a perfect fit here!
Paul in KY
Looks like my cat Carly. She’s a real beauty. Maybe has some burmese in her?
Rosalita
Gorgeous kitteh! Good to see a happy story this morning. I had to put one of my kittehs down yesterday (complications from diabetes). So heartbreaking even when you know you are doing the right thing for them.
Kristine
Gracie is gorgeous.
@Rosalita I am so sorry. It is hard, even when you know it’s right.
eemom
That kitty, in addition to being lovely and visibly soft and silky, has a certain stern “don’t fuck with me” look to her. Bet she could give Tunch a proverbial run for his money.
Mr. Poppinfresh
Our little man Wellington looks very similar, and is a pure-bred (but flawed, and therefore free!) Russian Blue. Korats are generally leaner in the face, IIRC.
Traits of the breed are intelligence, sociability, curiosity, and being a stubborn little fucker who refuses to stop trying to unplug my computer no matter how much I squirt him. He’s currently in one of his favorite spots- perched directly on my broadband modem, soaking up the warmth and blocking my wifi.
Beeb
Gracie is lovely, Donnah. And don’t let anyone tease you about her name. I once had a cat named Grey Cat. He was a stray and, since I already had two cats, I had no intention of keeping him. I was just going to find him a good home. So I didn’t give him a name, but I had to call him something — hence, Grey Cat. By the time it became clear to both of us he was staying, that was his name, and so it remained for 20 years.
P.S. She looks blue to me too, but “Blucie” wouldn’t have done at all. :>)
Judas Escargot
One of ours looks (Ubu) almost exactly like her, except he’s male and a little stockier. He’s a shelter kitty (and has asthma) so I doubt he’s a purebred: There seem to be a lot of these ‘Blue’ cats around now, the neighbors have one also (the ‘Blue’ gene is apparently dominant, so maybe it’s spreading around the local gene pool).
One of my original cats, Elvis (a grey tiger), ‘adopted’ him the week we brought him home as a kitten, and they were inseparable– to the point where we used to joke about them being a ‘couple’. Sadly Elvis succumbed to kidney disease at 16yo last May. After a few weeks of confusion, Ubu has since latched onto me as his person instead (sleeping at my feet as I type).
donnah
Thanks for the comments!
Gracie is a real sweetheart and she is also pretty stubborn. What made me think she was more Korat than Russian Blue is here:
russianblue.info/bluecats/head.htm
She is not finely-boned at all; she’s a tank. She has big round paws (we call them her mitts) and her eyes are yellow green instead of bottle green. Part of the body description for her breed is “cobby” which means a compact, muscular body. As a result, my sons and I affectionately call her “Miss Cobbs, Mrs Cobblepot, and CobbyPaws”.
But it doesn’t really matter. She is a bright spot in our lives and we are thrilled to have found her.
asiangrrlMN
@donnah: Gracie is gooooorgeous. I thought Russian Blue at first as well. You are right, though. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that she’s home!
@Rosalita: I’m sorry for your loss. My condolences.