There is nothing easy or simple about caring for homeless animals, but I can only thank the…read morevolunteers of the Central Missouri Humane Society for keeping my little girl alive long enough for us to meet. When I first decided to adopt a cat, I looked at their website to preview the kitties they had available for adoption, and one stood out: she was named Oreo for her all black coat with a single patch of white above her eyebrow. I saw her picture and the description saying she was special for having survived despite her heart condition, and thought, that's really sweet, but NO WAY! When I visited to meet the cats they had available, a volunteer told me, have you met Oreo, she's very sweet? And I took her into the one-on-one room just to make the volunteer feel good, having no intention of considering her. 10 minutes later I told the volunteers in the cat room Oreo was going home with me, and they both gasped.
As I found out later, she had been there for a year and a half, despite having a heart condition in a kill shelter, and had charmed the staff into keeping her alive in the small chance she would find a home. Fast forward 13 years, and me and Oreo (who I call Thebe) have been together through thick and thin in the best of times, and the worst of times. I was there for her when she had her heart surgery to repair a PDA, when she was diagnosed with fluted, and then diabetes, and she was there for me when I was unemployed for a year and a half after finishing my masters degree... then 2 years after my PhD, and having to accept jobs I could have done just as effectively after high school. And now when I'm entering another period of unemployment, I know she'll be there for me again when I'm at my worst. Always brightening my day with her strange loping walk and chainsmoker meow, and her purr sessions that would melt the coldest heart.
For the volunteers and employees of the Central Missouri Humane Society, I can only extend my most heartfelt thank you. Are things perfect there? No! But the job they do literally saves lives, both animal and human. On your darkest days, remember that. You can help bring two lives together who would only be lesser had they never met.
And since I'm horribly unemployed again, and rent is the only expense that isn't a luxury, I can only gift this ridiculous picture of Thebe (Oreo) after her heart surgery. She charmed the vet students into demanding she go home early because she couldn't be bothered to be nice to anyone else on her worst day. She says "go away humAn" from her new home in California.