FUR ELISE

ONE OF MY EARLIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORIES was singing and massaging my aunt's cat. I was about 3 or 4 years old. She would always let me cuddle her, even when the cat was sleeping. Her name was Flirty Bird. You might say I’ve wanted a cat ever since.

As I got older, I wanted a cat because I just wanted to be a mother to something. I wanted to be that blanket of security the cat has and form a bond. The extra work and costs of having a cat didn’t really worry me. I just wanted to give a baby a home.

I suppose I could have gotten a kitten from the pet store. Anyone who has ever seen a kitten knows that they’re irresistibly cute. But I decided to do something different. I decided to rescue a cat from a shelter.

I knew there would be some challenges gaining the cat's full trust. But I just felt like I could overcome those challenges and give an abandoned cat a loving home for the rest of his or her life.

Overflowing in the pandemic

You may not know this, but many shelters are overcrowded with “surrendered” pets because their owners are facing hardships due to COVD-19. So while I could easily have gotten a kitten, I wasn’t looking to get a cat just for fun. I wanted to show a cat from the shelter some love in this cruel world where so many have been abandoned and even abused.

I know this because I looked for cats on many different sites. For instance, I searched on sites such as adoptapet.com, lostdogrescue.org/cats, and petfinder.com.

I saw cats with names like Ginger. There was a pink-nosed white cat named Jules with two different colored eyes – one blue and one dark yellow. Jules was being put up for adoption with her “mirror image,” Brady.

Then there was Rambo, a cat rescued all the way from North Carolina – an entire state away. Rambo looked just as gruff as his name would suggest. Like he had been through some really tough times and was just sick of it.

But the cat that really caught my eye was Sweet Pea – a Siamese tortoiseshell-colored cat believed to be 11 months old. When I read the description of how Sweet Pea ended up in a shelter, it just broke my heart. This is what it said:

It is hard to believe that this blue eyed girl was found as a stray. Estimated to be 11 months old, she landed in a public shelter and no one came to claim her. She appears to be a torti point siamese mix. It is apparent from her fur that she was on the streets for a while or just not well cared for. But we know that with a good quality diet and lots of TLC, this girl will transform into the beauty she was meant to be. She is a picky eater and we are trying to transition her to a more healthy diet. Sweet Pea loves to rub against your leg as a sign of affection and will sit on your lap for a while. She has also started to play with toys and seems to tolerate the other low key female cats sharing her foster room.

As soon as I saw Sweet Pea and learned about her plight, I knew this was the cat that I wanted to bring home. So that’s what I did. Here’s a diary of what happened next.

October 23, 2020

I am so excited to bond with my new cat and start cuddling. But Sweet Pea wasn’t as sweet as she was made out to be. She seemed quite the opposite. But I figured maybe it was just the whole experience of a stranger coming to get her from a shelter where she just getting used to the routine.

Oct. 27

So, there hasn’t been any cuddling like I used to do with Flirty Bird back when I was a kid. Sweet Pea likes to hide. She seems to be able to hide in nooks and crannies inside my apartment that I didn’t even know were there. I kind of expected this, though. I know I have to give it some time so that Sweet Pea can adjust to her new environment. I’m glad I did enough research not to take it personal. I know that cats hate change. But Sweet Pea must really hate change. I looked at the video on a camera that records all movement when I’m away and there wasn’t a lot to see because Sweet Pea stayed out of sight.

Oct. 28

Today Sweet Pea finally began to look around a bit more when I was gone. But she was very cautious and would rapidly go back into hiding if she heard the slightest sound.

Oct. 30

I’m so psyched! This evening when I began to practice piano and play the beginning measures of “Fur Elise,” Sweet Pea decided to come out of hiding. This made me so happy. My piano teacher has a cat, and every time she plays, her cat softly brushes up against her leg. So you can imagine how I felt when Sweet Pea began to do the same thing!

Oct. 31

Since I knew I would be out with friends today at the mall, I decided to use my keyboard to record my playing of “Fur Elise.” I usually use this feature to critique myself. But this time I decided to put the keyboard on playback so that “Fur Elise” would play once every half hour. Sweet Pea seemed like she was startled at first by the sudden notes, but then quickly figured out that they were coming from my keyboard. She just looked confused because I wasn’t there for her to rub up against my legs. But the music seemed to sooth her nonetheless. It just warms my heart knowing that a piece I played can bring peace to my new cat. What really makes me happy is that when I come home, Sweet Pea goes near the keyboard. It’s as if to say: “I want you to play.”

So that’s what I do to calm myself and my cat. I play “Fur Elise.” And Sweet Pea rubs up against my legs. This is better than anything I ever imagined!