Trina

TRINA FINDS A NEW HOME WITH A NMHPU STAFF MEMBER I first met Trina, a beautiful 8-year-old cream and white tabby, in our Cat Adoption Suite. She’d been adopted from our program in 2002. We don’t know how it happened, but she ended up in a shelter severely underweight, with serious wounds on her face and bleeding ears. We got her the care she needed and brought her back into our program. Maybe it was because of her hard life, but she was always curled up in a basket and didn’t show much interest in people or in the other cats. She never approached me to get affection, but as soon I began petting her, she’d get really affectionate and loving—and sweetly demanding, head butting my hand if I stopped petting her.

Our adoptable cats are all sweet, but with her long, fine fur, Trina looks like my rabbit Buckley—so I felt like I already knew her. At certain angles, she looks like she has a mane like his and her paws are really fluffy as well. She has longer fur sticking out from in between her toes just like he does.

One of the things that I thought was so adorable about her and that reminded me of Buckley was that she shook her ears a lot, just like him. But then I noticed that she scratched her ears so much, she was getting scabs by them. We took her to the vet, where we found that her ear canals were so swollen that there was a chance she had a tumor. Once they put her under, they saw that it was just severe inflammation–but her eardrums were totally gone.

I decided to foster Trina when she was done at the vet so she could get some extra TLC. I knew that I wanted to adopt her, but I was worried that, despite her similarities to Buckley, they wouldn’t get along. But Buckley was good with dogs, so I felt confident that a mellow cat like Trina wouldn’t bother him at all.

I was totally wrong. She terrified him by completely ignoring him. She had no interest in him at all. She didn’t so much as sniff in his direction for the first 24 hours. It drove him nuts. He thumped his back paw constantly, trying to get her attention. It might have worked except for her lack of eardrums.

Finally, after three days, we had a breakthrough. My boyfriend brought his dog Jax over to meet Trina, who was a little afraid of dogs. I sat on my bed with Trina on one side and Buckley on the other. When Jax walked in the room, Buckley hopped into my lap and then over to Trina—who was so focused on the dog that she didn’t notice him. But then, she turned to Buckley. She finally noticed him! With this recognition, Buckley got brave and leaned toward Trina. She returned the gesture and they touched noses. I knew then that she was a permanent member of my family.

Since that moment, whenever I give Trina her ear drops, she runs away and hides by Buckley for comfort. The first time I thought it was a coincidence, but she’ll seek him out no matter where he is. They have become great friends. Sometimes she’ll even climb into Buckley’s cage and hang out with him in there if he isn’t roaming around the house. Even though her calmness terrified him at first, he’s grown to appreciate it.