I was out one day and decided to stop at a Petco and pick up a few things. When I entered I noticed they had people in doing cat adoptions and decided to go take a look. After a min I noticed a small carrier turned sideways sitting on top of the cages. There was a cat in the carrier. When I asked to see her, the lady told me "You don't want HER, she's NASTY!!" Turns out that Kitty was never taken out of her cage as she was considered to be extremely aggressive and the only reason she was there was because after 2 YEARS they had decided they just HAD to scrub her tiny cage. Well it took some convincing but they did finally bring her into the tiny meet& greet room. About 12 min later one of them poked her head in and she was sitting on my lap getting her head scratched! She did have issues but I brought her home knowing I had a fight ahead if me. Nobody there knew anything about her aside from her age and how long she'd been at the shelter. They were so happy to see her go that they didn't charge me an adoption fee!

Within a few weeks I noticed that there was a real pattern to her behavior...one I recognized. Sadly it was one that spoke of abuse ... intense, long-term, physical abuse. I called the shelter and asked if they had any info about her past. Turns out, poor Kitty, whom we had renamed Kiki, had been a pet 1st. But after an injury her owners couldn't afford she was surrendered and spent 4 years as a LAB ANIMAL!! Talk about abuse!

Well it took a good year or so but Kiki slowly came to see she was somewhere safe and that it was okay to trust again. She became the most loving, sweet and dedicated cat you could ever imagine. She passed from cancer last year at the age of 17 but had 12 happy years with us and is sadly missed!

Lea Insalaco
Central Village, CT