I can’t believe it has been a little more than 7 years since I walked into a local cat rescue shelter in search of a particular little floof who had been passed over for weeks and was “not good with children.” He had a grumpy little glare and a big attitude and he was NOT pleased to meet me!
It turns out that Finn had been a stray living in a trailer park, and when he was around 6 months old someone scooped him up and tried to socialize him for adoption. By the time I adopted him a few months later he was over the whole meet-and-greet, people, shelter, everything. As a result he would have an angry little rage fit if anyone looked in his face directly, and the only way to “meet” him for potential adoption was to sit on a chair so a shelter volunteer could put him on your lap, facing away, and he would sit still if he got brushed. OF COURSE I brought him home immediately!
We stopped at the walk-in vet clinic on the way home to get him an exam and some updated vaccinations and save everyone from a second stressful car trip later. The vet estimated his age around 11 months, so I picked a birthday for him one month in the future and now we celebrate every May 15th. Once he was home it was a rocky start, he was so stressed and overwhelmed that he spent the first three days hiding under the futon in the spare bedroom with the door shut. Eventually he was lured out by treats, and then realized how much he loved “brushies” and playtime and he started to settle in and become more social over the next few weeks.
The girls were Not Pleased about the new addition to the house, though, and Finn didn’t help things along because he was a stereotypical bratty little brother. As a result he spent months in the spare bedroom with the door shut and slowly working towards socialization with the other cats, and years before they could be all together without supervision. Even then, he spent his nights in my bedroom with the door shut while the girls roamed the rest of the house. Given Finn’s challenging start, he definitely appreciated the extra alone time and closed spaces.
While none of them ever became Best Forever Friends, after a while they coexisted peacefully enough to hang out together and occasionally even snuggle.
With Finn’s rough start as a stray, he had some resulting health problems of his own that took a while to figure out. After a lot of tests, he was diagnosed with feline asthma and Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disorder, both complicated by some absolutely ridiculous food allergies which included everything poultry and everything fish.
Fortunately there are some alternative proteins available for cat food, and we settled on a limited ingredient kibble made from rabbit meat. Finn was a BIG FAN, and even to this day he always has to have an extra little sniff when the kibble bucket is refilled.
Finn became quite the little character once he settled in and felt better, and he often could be found “tums up” hanging out in the middle of the floor waiting for attention and brushies.
After the girls passed in 2024, Finn was thrilled to be an “only cat” and get even more spoiled than he had been. He got upgraded to a fancy new automatic kibble feeder, and a water fountain that he loved to play and splash in.
I also looked for an automatic litter box for Finn, originally we tried a Litter Robot since he was already used to using covered litter boxes. But the rotating globe was too much for him, and a couple weeks into the trial he became convinced that it was a Huge Scary Kitty-eating Machine so I had to send it back. Fortunately Petsafe had finally made a nice, flat self-cleaning litter box which worked with any lightweight clumping litter, so a quick DoorDash order later and Finn was excited about his shiny new litter box that would clean itself every time he used it.
About 6 months after Pixie died, I decided it was time for a big life change, sold the townhouse, and moved out to the Olympic Peninsula. Finn did not appreciate the ferry ride to get there, but he loves the quiet location and the yard full of birds and deer.
Our first stop was a rental house that neither of us wanted to stay in for long, but Finn did love the warm sunny front door and rolling around on the mat or spying on the street out front.
He also loooooooved his little fleece basket on the table below the front window, where he could nap or watch the hummingbirds at the feeder.
Once I bought the new house and we moved out of the rental, Finn and I have both been a lot happier! He has a great cat tower next to my office windows where he spends most of his day napping and watching the birds in the garden.
He also discovered the joy of the walk-in pantry, where he likes to go “spelunking” for adventures.
The biggest change this year has been adding canned food back to Finn’s diet; for many years he could only eat one special kind of kibble due to his IBD. But late last year he was having some symptom flare-ups, and after some work with our new vet he was diagnosed with pancreatitis and liver inflammation in addition to (and related to) his IBD. With advice from the new vet Finn went through a gut microbiome rebuild protocol that has made a huge difference, and because of that improvement he’s able to start eating small amounts of canned food again.
Since he is a super spoiled kitty who likes to eat multiple small meals per day, and I do not want to return to that cycle of fixing fresh kitty meals every few hours all day long, I splurged on a super duper automatic, self-chilling wet food feeder for Finn.
He is a Big Fan of canned food, so motivation to use the new feeder was high.
Luckily the fancy canned food feeder is pretty quiet and doesn’t make scary noises, but it does make a lovely bell chime when it opens for meal time. So within a few days Finn was eating out of it happily, and within a couple of weeks he was on a regularly timed schedule for three canned meals per day which I could prep quickly and easily while making my tea every morning.
These days, things are pretty chill here and Finn spends most of his days napping, having MAD CRAZED ZOOMIES at bedtime, sleeping on my feet, and watching birds from various windows.
Oh what a wonderful life you’ve given him! Lucky kitty :}