Sophie Loafie, how I love thee

Tomorrow, it will be six months since we adopted our sweet Sophie, aka Sophie Loafie. Deciding to bring another cat into our family was not an easy decision for me. Actually, it was a decision that took me several years to make, going back and forth on whether to do it or not. Now, I only wish I would have decided to do it much sooner because Sophie was waiting for us for a very long time.

She was a stray that was brought into the local shelter, where she stayed for quite some time. They even had her in the adoption center of Petsmart for several months, but nobody came along to give her a forever home. A local rescue group, Two Left Paws, took her in and put her in a foster home when the shelter was going to put her to sleep. I will forever be grateful to them for saving my sweet girl's life. Six months after arriving at her foster home, she came to live with us.

So, what took me so long to decide to finally get another cat? Well, Crystal Kitty was a lone cat for a very long time. She hasn't lived with other cats for almost nine years, and when she did live with them, she was the "undercat". They would pick on her, bully her so they could steal her sleeping spot and I rarely saw her play. Once she became the lone cat of the household, her personality flowered. She started playing, running around in that crazy kitty mania and just seemed much happier overall. So, although I really wanted to give her some cat companions, I was very hesitant to do so. I didn't want to do it at the expense of her happiness.

When I finally decided to take the plunge, we contacted Two Left Paws and I told them our situation. They showed us several cats, but none of them felt right to me. Then, I saw Sophie's profile. It was at that moment that I knew she was the one. They brought her over to do a foster to adopt, just in case things didn't work out, giving us two weeks to see how things went. In less than a week, I called them and asked for them to bring the adoption papers over.

Sophie is such a sweet, perfect kitty. She never picks on Crystal or harasses her. Crystal doesn't seem to mind her, either. Occasionally, Crystal will be crabby and go at Sophie, hissing and yelling at her, but Sophie takes it in stride and will just walk away calmly. Food is very, very important to Crystal, which you would never guess when you look at her tiny frame. I think Sophie knows this, because every time I give them a can of wet food she waits in the other room until Crystal is done eating her fill. They'll lay in the same room a lot, and even quite near each other, so I really think that Crystal loves having Sophie around. She just won't admit it.

My only regret in adopting her is that we didn't do it much, much sooner. It breaks my heart when I think of all those months that she sat in a cage, alone, hardly getting any love. She has so much love to give and is absolutely perfect. I love you so much, Sophie!