Pam & Tom’s New “Best Friends” – A Personal Story
It all started with a death in the family…
Dateline: Scottsdale, AZ – Obituary
Freckles, beloved family member, passed away peacefully at her home on October 15, 2024, surrounded by her loving, life-long caretakers. Freckles was born in 2004 to her homeless mother who had been abandoned in the desert north of Scottsdale. Freckles and her three siblings were ultimately taken in when their mother moved them onto the caretakers’ front patio. Other than her caretakers, Freckles leaves no known survivors.
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Freckles
After 43 years of marriage, my wife Pam and I were left without a cat in our home. No need to get up every morning and open a can of cat food. No litter boxes to clean. No clicking claws racing across our tile floors. No hairballs on the carpet. What now?
We’d always dreamed of long cruises and traveling the world, but concerns about our cats had usually kept us near home except for occasional weekend getaways. Now was our chance. Just close up the house and take off. And we did exactly that for a week’s visit with friends in California. Then, we came back to an empty house. We looked at each other and almost in unison said, “We need a cat.”
And so began our search for a new addition to our family. We looked at a few local adoption agencies in Scottsdale and wanted to adopt all of the cats, but found no cats that “clicked” with us. After a while, we remembered that we’d visited Best Friends Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah several times in the past – not searching to adopt – just wanting to see what the Sanctuary was all about and play with some of their cats. You want cats? Best Friends has cats! We quickly decided on a road trip to Best Friends, and that’s when the fun began.
After hours of reviewing available cats for adoption on the Best Friends website we fell in love with Luna – “a shy but sweet snowshoe-like cat” – according to her web bio. Before we went to Kanab, we had a lengthy phone call about Luna with Grayson Myers, a Best Friends adoptions team member. He told us that Luna was a “special case.” She was one of 60 cats that Best Friends had taken in from a cat hoarding situation nearly 18 months before. She had never been given enough time to develop a close relationship with people since her birth.
Robert Griffin and Alicia McCormack were the two Best Friends associates who had worked most closely with the 60 cats since they had come to the Sanctuary. Robert assured us that given time and patience Luna would develop into an affectionate cat. She just needed to find a caring home for her loving character to emerge. Fortunately, we’d adopted several feral or challenged cats over the years, so that aspect didn’t deter us.
We booked a room at the Best Friends Roadhouse and Mercantile, a hotel extension of the Best Friends Sanctuary that caters to visitors and their pets. After the six hour drive time, we pulled into the Roadhouse parking lot, checked in to our room and immediately drove to the Sanctuary to meet Luna. Since we’d arrived late in the afternoon, we could only spend about an hour with her before the Sanctuary closed for the day. Luna proved to be even more “shy” than her bio described; allowing just a quick touch before she backed away. But she “clicked” with us.
After breakfast the following morning, we met with Shae Pattison, the adoption coordinator, and spent the entire day touring the cat sanctuary and playing with dozens of cats. Out of 10 “semi-finalists” on our list, we finally settled on two final contenders: Luna and Alice her sister (or maybe her daughter; their lineage is impossible to know for certain). Like Luna, Alice had also been part of the cat hoarding rescue. We’d originally set out to adopt only one cat. Decisions, decisions – what to do? We did what any cat lover would do. “We’ll adopt them both,” we told Robert and Shae.
Early the next day, we met Robert and Shae and finalized the adoption paper work. Luna and Alice were put in their carriers and loaded into our car. We then set out for the 6-hour return drive to Scottsdale. Although we were expecting screams and hissy-fits, they both turned out to be happy little travelers with barely a peep from them during the entire trip.
Luna and Lily (the new name we’ve chosen for Alice) have become part of our family since we adopted them on December 17, 2024. Luna is still shy but steadily warming to us and her new surroundings. Lily quickly adapted and now continually rolls over for belly rubs. The morning feeding routine has returned. Litter boxes once again need cleaning. Claws are now clicking across our tile floors. Hairballs are showing up occasionally on the carpet. Life is good and purrs are plentiful – but we still miss our Freckles.
For more information about Best Friends Sanctuary, please visit their website: https://bestfriends.org/
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