Nicole recently asked about the adoption stories of our pets. For long-time readers, this will be a refresher, but for those of you who are a bit newer, let's talk about how Zelda the Cat and Hannah the Dog came into our lives.
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Zelda the Kitten
Summer 2011 was tough. My husband got a job offer for a visiting position in June and we had to move in August. We were moving away from the Twin Cities to a place where I had no job, no friends, and I was not looking forward to this. We knew this would happen because the job prospects for him were exceedingly limited (learn from us, friends - do not get a doctorate in political theory), but that didn't make the reality easier for me when it suddenly happened.
I was visiting my family and friends in Michigan in July (I think it is crucial to add that I was by myself and Dr. BB was in Minneapolis finishing up some stuff there) and my friends N & S had rescued a litter of kittens from the barn on N's father's property. The last kitten they had to find a home for was this teeny tiny little fuzzball. Her siblings had mostly been cream with blue eyes, but then there was this striped tabby cat with giant ears and green eyes.
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| Baby Zelda!! Look at the fuzz. |
My friends C & R had three rambunctious children and they were making noises about taking this precious kitten home with them. I was honestly scared for her life if they did take her. These children are lovely young adults now - the youngest one graduated from high school last year - but at the time they were a tad violent and kinetic and wild and they kept picking up the kitten and throwing her around and I broke.
"I'll take her," I said. "I'm moving and I'll need a friend."
Note: At this point, I had not even considered whether or not my husband would like to have a kitten to move with us. I called him and he was in the middle of a shift at the bike shop and I asked if we could get a cat and he said no and I said oh, well, I'm bringing one home. Better let both our old and new apartments know and pay the pet rent, love you, bye.
So I went to a store and bought a pet carrier, a travel litter box, and some food and then this cat and I drove from Michigan to Minnesota and she cried the whole time. Was that foreshadowing for the future? You better believe it.
And we took her to the apartment in Minneapolis where she lived for two weeks and we had to pay both a pet deposit and a month's worth of pet rent (lololol) and then we moved her to the new town. We named her after Zelda Fitzgerald because kittens are insane and we cuddled her and we learned she was very food motivated (there was a PopTart incident), that she didn't like it when you touched her ears or her paws, and Dr. BB fell in love with her immediately. Her tail grew before the rest of her, but eventually she grew into her ears and her tail.
It was a time before we had a digital camera or smartphones, so my photos of Baby Zelda are limited.
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| This couch had been just delivered and by the time we tipped the delivery guys, she had already taken it over. A human had not yet sat on it. |
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| Teenage cat. Brutal. |
But she'll still cut a bitch, you know?
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Hannah the Dog
We bought a house in 2017. I was quite happy as a renter, to be honest. I loved not having to worry about snow removal, cutting the grass, or dealing with broken appliances. But my husband was not happy as a renter and he told me that if we got a house, we could also get a dog. I was sold.
I talked to our veterinarian about it and she said we should give Zelda a year or so to adjust from the move from an apartment to a house and then we could get a dog. So we waited.
In 2018 I made some initial moves with a dog rescue in our town. But then I went to help my mom when she was recovering from surgery and one of my sister's dogs bit me (don't click that link unless you're okay with seeing a giant gruesome bruise). I put the dog hunt on hold.
But in 2019, I was ready. I wanted a dog. We went through a local rescue that drives up dogs from Texas once a month.
We were looking for a medium- to large-sized dog who would be good with Zelda. Those were our requirements. We sort of wanted a dog who wanted to be active, but honestly, we mostly just wanted a companion who would not kill our cat.
I thought I had written up the steps to getting the dog on my blog before, but it turns out that I hadn't!
1) We filled out a basic application on the rescue's website. Names of people who live in the house, ages, work schedules, non-family references, and the like.
2) Some lady came for a home visit. She looked around our house, commented on how big it was, how it was too bad we didn't have a fence, and that Zelda was beautiful and well-cared for (noting the cat toys and scratching posts everywhere). She also briefly talked about the pitfalls of rescue and some tips about early days with a dog.
3) We were "pre-approved," which meant we could meet any dog from the rescue that we wanted to meet. At this point, there was a longer questionnaire we had to fill out. I am happy to share this questionnaire and our responses if anyone wants it (I found it in my email), but this is already too long of a post.
4) We stalked the rescue's page for weeks looking for dogs that met our requirements for size and experience with cats.
There were two dogs in the running. One was a boxer/Great Dane mix named Octavia and the other was Hannah (those are the actual profiles from the rescue's website at the time). I was really pulling for Octavia, but Dr. BB wasn't sold on a puppy. In the end, Octavia had an incident with a cat and the rescue suggested that we meet Hannah when she came in from Texas.
And that's how we ended up with Hannah B!!
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| We had just signed the adoption paperwork! |
I have a lot of feels when I look at the picture taken from adoption day. Poor Hannah is stressed and her fur is in rough shape, but we were so happy to have her!
I wrote a post about what was going on with Hannah every month for the first year we had her. Mostly these are posts about training and her health woes, but there are so many photos of Hannah! I can't imagine most of my regular readers would want to read through it, but if anyone's getting here through a search for stories about animal rescue and adoption, they might be somewhat useful.
Oh, I'm so glad you wrote about this! Thank you! I've always been interested in your pets' origin stories. Isn't it glorious how animals bring so much joy into our lives? Also, I laughed at "we just wanted a dog that wouldn't kill our cat" because this happened to a friend of mine (the cat is okay, but whew). She got a verrrrrry difficult rescue, a dog that had been literally feral and running free when he arrived. Well, the dog was used to eating whatever, being by itself for so long and probably thought the cat was a pretty easy dish. Luckily my friend was home at the time and saw the cat's head go into the dog's mouth so she could intervene. EVERYTHING IS FINE but the dog had to go back (the shelter said it was great with cats, they lied) and now my friend rescued a puppy, who realizes the cat rules the household, happy ending, the end.
ReplyDeleteWe almost had to put off getting a dog for another year if Hannah hadn't been there because they don't have a ton of dog options with "cat experience." I would have been SO TICKED off if the rescue had forced us to do all those hoops to adopt a dog and then set us up with a dog that ATTACKED MY CAT. Like. So. Mad.
DeleteCats do rule households. That's definitely the way it is in our house!
Zelda always seems so regal, so it was special treat to see her as a fuzzy little kitten! Love your rescue stories. And love all the behind-the-scenes marital compromises, bartering, and ultimatums that form the subtext too :).
ReplyDelete1. Zelda had ear mites when we brought her home and she HATED the solution we had to put in her ears, so for a good chunk of her kittenhood, she just looked like a drowned rat because the solution would be all over her ears and face. We had no idea this fuzzy cat would turn into Queen Zelda.
Delete2. Our main marital rule is "whoever cares the most, wins." I cared the most about getting the cat, so I won. He cared most about buying a house, so he won. LOL. I feel like these stories are very indicative of how our relationship works.
LOVE IT!!! I love Zelda's kitten photos so, so much. Of course you had to take her! And Hannah... isn't it funny that you wanted a different dog originally? Can you even imagine your life without Hannah? Pets just add so, so much to a home.
ReplyDeleteBoth our cats were rescues. And in the past we've gotten some guinea pigs from a local guinea pig rescue organization. I'm sorry to say we got our rats from a breeder- someone recently chided me for that, because apparently if you look around you can actually find rats that were rescued from a lab- we'll do that next time.
On a completely unrelated subject, my husband just finished the third book in the "My Brilliant Friend" quartet. Now, he's not a big reader. He read the first book over Christmas break, then when he was on spring break he read the second one, and now that it's summer he finished the third one. He literally couldn't stop talking about how much he LOVES THESE BOOKS. I mean, I think these might be his favorite books of all time (the fourth book has been ordered and is on its way.) I think it's kind of funny that this was a CBBC book, and most people didn't really seem to like it. But I say the book club was a success because my husband discovered his favorite author. I don't know what he'll do when he finishes the last book. Probably cry.
We sometimes jokingly call Hannah Octavia when she's chasing the cat. "You don't want to go the way of Octavia, do you?" (Note: I think Octavia was adopted by a lovely couple that probably treat her like a queen.)
DeleteThose Neapolitan books are SO GOOD. I'm on your husband's side on this! Tell him not to read any of the other Ferrante books because they aren't nearly as good.
BABY ZELDA OMGGGGGGGGGGGG. I loved reading these stories, Engie! So fun to revisit these precious creatures joining your family!
ReplyDeleteAnd whenever I think of Hannah, I get a little choked up. She has come SO FAR since you got her. Those early years seemed so complicated and challenging and I imagine it must be such a relief to have turned a corner with her health and anxiety.
All of my childhood pets were rescues of one variety or another. Either we got them from the local pet adoption facility or they were "rescued" from families who lived in town and couldn't handle them for whatever reason. We also rescued a good many barn cats from farmer friends; they probably didn't need rescuing, but we needed mice control in our barn! Because of my allergies, I think if we ever got a pet we would have to buy a designer "hypo allergenic" one, which makes me sad. It would be nice to rescue one of the sweet kitties we visit at Pet Smart.
If you're interested in a specific breed of cat or dog, look for a rescue for that breed! People with designer pet breeds have to give them up sometimes too, for whatever reason. It's worth a try. That's how we got our two keeshonden.
DeleteI know. Kitten Zelda was SO CUTE!! I should have taken eighty bazillion photos, but it was pre-digital camera for me, so it is what it is.
DeleteI desperately want photos of puppy Hannah. Can you imagine her giant ears on a tiny puppy body?!
I echo what J says! Go for a rescue for a particular breed instead of buying. You might have to travel a bit to get to a rescue that's perfect for you, but there are many cat breeds that are low in the Fel d 1 protein that causes the issues, including Siamese and Russian Blues.
This was a terrific post to read. I was so hoping Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgerald (who is, for me, the seminal Zelda forever). She was such an endearing kitten. I'd have felt the same about having her live with a houseful of rambunctious little children. You really did rescue her!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea Hannah was a Southerner LOL. How patient you were to wait a whole year for her, allowing Zelda to acclimate to her bigger home. And I like the insider's peek into the negotiations (or lack thereof) into how the pets came into the family, too. Sometimes, one partner has to just acquiesce to the Greater Good when time is of the essence.
We've had four cats in total. The first two were adopted from people's back yards as foundlings. The two we have now were adopted from the local Friendship Animal Protective League, a no-kill rescue. Piper and Marlowe are 14 now, and while Piper is a huge orange tabby who loves to cuddle, Marlowe is a long-haired queen who will also cut a bitch.
Zelda Fitzgerald all the way. If Hannah had been a boy, I'm 100% positive we would have renamed her Fitz. Alas, she came with the name and seemed to respond to it, so Hannah it is.
DeleteHannah is a true southerner. When we first brought her home, she had NO UNDERCOAT. That first winter was very rough for her. Now she gets a super thick undercoat every winter and right now is a very intense shedding season where we call her Tufty Butt a lot because there are tufts everywhere on her body.
Awwww...all your kitties are perfect, but Marlowe is clearly the most perfect.
Hannah is such a sweetie and you've done well for her-- and I'd say she's done well for you, too.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever rescued a pet? Yes. I found one of our cats as a tiny kitten living near a trashcan outside a hospital. She was filthy mess, smelly, and couldn't stop purring when I stopped to look at her. OF COURSE, I had to bring her home with me. We named her a nickname after the hospital, Grandy!
WHO DUMPS A KITTEN!!?!?! Egads. I'm so glad you saved Grandy!
DeleteLoved this post.
ReplyDeleteI haven't ever had a rescue pet, but a local cat once ate a rabbit and her brood of bunnies and we rescued the last bunny. It BROKE MY HEART when that little bunny passed after a few weeks of living at our home. We did our best, but it was so young and wild and very much needed it's mother. We had a burial for it an everything.
My Dad is allergic to dogs and cats (but loves dogs and I think he'd have an "outdoor" dog if he was single); my mom is TERRIFIED of dogs. Needless to say, we never had pets.
I'm also allergic to dogs and cats. Part of me loves the idea of having a hypoallergenic breed, but our lives are busy and we don't seem like the poster family for pets. We travel quite a bit, my husband is gone a lot (and I'm not a huge pet person, so 90% of care would fall to me), and neither of my kids is "in" to pets. So, no pets for us now or probably forever. But the thought of having a warm body curling up next to me that CANNOT SPEAK WORDS is very, very appealing.
Look, Elisabeth, sometimes I wish we didn't have pets because it makes travel so hard, but there is NOTHING BETTER than Zelda cuddling with me. NOTHING. Cats 4Eva.
DeleteAs I was reading about Zelda, I was saying to myself, do Hannah in a separate post, but you didn't listen to me. Both are great stories. Our present cat is a rescue as are most in one way or another. A key feature was that she is delclawed. She was likely the last one in the province as this practice has been abandoned, which I guess is a good thing. But it gave Lacey a home when her 'winning' personality would have probably kept her in the shelter.
ReplyDeleteAwwww...your province is right to ban declawing. Poor Lacey. Imagine having one of your only defenses in this harsh world being forcibly removed from you. (Especially poor Lacey in the shelter with all the other kitties who weren't declawed! It must have been terrifying!)
DeleteOh, I loved reading about Zelda and Hannah's origin stories!
ReplyDeleteThose kids were throwing Zelda? NO! I would have taken her as well, though I could not have brought her home with me because my Ted is deathly allergic to cats. But I would NOT have let her go home with kids who are a bit too wild. I'm sure they have grown up into responsible people now.
We got both of our dogs from the same rescue, because we wanted that breed, but we didn't want a puppy, and we couldn't afford one from a breeder anyway. The rescue is for Keeshonden only, though our first dog Genevieve was a mix. I love love love them, but if (when!) we get another dog, I am open to someone who doesn't look so much like my Mulder. It amazed us that we got Mulder, that someone would spend that much on a dog and then give them up, but life happens to people with expensive dogs too. Sometimes an owner dies, sometimes people move, whatever.
Those children are all mostly upstanding citizens now and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't toss a kitten to each other now. Like, I'm 80% sure.
DeleteLife happens in general. I just hope that my life doesn't take a turn that meant I'd have to give up my girls because no one could ever take care of them the way I do. But I appreciate people who do give up their pets to responsible rescues, as hard as it probably is for them.
When I wrote the comment about life happening, I had forgotten my own mother! Gah. She was feeling like crap, not sure why. Went to a planned breakfast with some friends, and never came home. They took her to the hospital, she was airlifted to get bypass surgery, and then she decided she couldn't go back to her 2 story house on a steep hill, and she moved to California. She never saw her sweet cats again, and I think that is a big part of the depression she went into. It was her decision, but it was HARD. My brother would have adopted them, but he and his wife already had a cat (two cats? I don't remember) and it would not have worked. They found homes for my mom's cats, but gah, that whole situation sucked. Which begs the question - At what age does one stop having pets? I know when we had Genevieve, we didn't think at all about what would happen to her if we died. When we had Mulder, we had a plan. And when we got him, I was almost 50, so not old by any means.
DeleteYES!! I think older people SHOULD have pets. They are so good for them in terms of affection, activity, and just having something to get out of bed for. I just think we all should have a good plan for what we would do with our precious pets when/if something happens to us. We have a plan, but it's sort of haphazard and we definitely need to have better documentation about their food/medicine in case we both die in a car accident tomorrow. *sigh* Life is hard, isn't it?
DeleteIt was so tough to have pets before digital cameras and smart phones. There was no way to take a billion pictures of them everyday!
ReplyDeleteWhy yes we have rescued a pet! Same as you, there is a shelter here that does transports from Tennessee. They weren't nearly as strict. All that we had to do was come in and meet Doggo, and then fill out some basic paperwork (who was living in the house, did we have other pets, under what circumstances would we return the dog, how long would we give her to adjust - my answers were we would never return her unless she turned out to be aggressive and she could have as long as she needed to adjust). They told us about common issues that rescues can have and sent us on our way with a "new puppy" package of toys and food - we used every single item that they gave us. Anyways, having a rescue puppy has been a ton of work and still is but it has all been worth it.
Yay for rescuing southern dogs! I am endlessly fascinated by the different protocols rescues have for handing over pets. I was *shocked* that our rescue never did any follow-up visits or even phone calls, but I guess that's not protocol. It just seems so crazy that they trusted us with a whole living being, you know?!
DeleteI love this so much and I cannot HANDLE pictures of baby/teenage Zelda. Too cute!!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think about Lila going to a different home that may not have respected her boundaries like I do and it makes me so, so grateful I adopted her. She would not have done well in a more rambunctious household!
Both of my girls are rescues. One of my mom's coworkers had a friend who rescued Eloise and needed to find her a good home, and that's how I got her. And I adopted Lila from a no-kill shelter.
Baby Zelda was sooooo sweet. I had no idea she'd grow up into a tyrant. (This is a lie. Zelda is the cuddliest, sweetest girl.)
DeleteI am so glad you adopted Lila and gave her all the space she needs to be the best Lila possible!
Well, I loved this since I didn't know all the details before. BABY ZELDA. OMG. If I had ovaries, they'd be hurting looking at her cute kitten self and BTW: I love a girl who will cut a bitch!
ReplyDeleteHannah. Wow, can you even picture your life if you'd gone with Octavia? I think things work out how they're supposed to because who else could have given Hannah all the training, love and support but you two?
All of our pets have been rescues aside from Cocoa the Boxer who we had for 13 years. We will forever be rescue people and my next ones will come directly from a local rescue and not from Ukraine! (I love my dogs, but really, I should have just gone local)
BABY ZELDA was a fluffball. And SO SWEET. And now she's still a super sweet fluffball.
DeleteI sometimes think about an Octavia life. It would have been crazy different, that's for sure!
Aww, I love reading their origin stories! And love that you've had Zelda since she was a kitten and that she was with you when you really needed a friend and to heal.
ReplyDeleteHaving Zelda around when I broke my leg was a real stroke of luck. I wouldn't have made it through so easily without her!
DeleteOh, team rescue all the way! Though the one down side is not having baby pictures: baby Zelda was so tiny and cute. This was such fun reading.
ReplyDeleteI would commit a relatively major felony for photos of baby Hannah. Could you imagine how ADORABLE her big ears would have been on a tiny puppy?
DeleteThanks for sharing these stories. The cat story is fun. My husband really wants a cat but desnt want to care for one. I fear he shows up with one some day. I have only ever had a guinea pig as pet. My grandparents used to have cats. But these were outdoor cats so they decide if the wanted to be pet and they rarely were.
ReplyDeleteAs for dogs. Not fond of them after being bitten. But from a far Hannah seems nice.
I always think of cats as pretty low-maintenance pets, but there is a fair amount of work associated with them. Zelda gets her fur and teeth brushed daily, feed twice a day, water changed at least once a day, litter box scooped at least once a day, and requires regular cuddles. Compared to the dog, it's not too bad, but if you don't want to to do any work, don't get a cat!
DeleteHannah is lovely from afar, but she takes warming up to a new person, so she's not the dog for everyone. I can see why a dog isn't the right for everyone's lifestyle!
Well, and now I know just how fantastic they are, and what wonderful pet parents you and Dr. BB are. :) I loved these stories - thank you for sharing. So glad you have opened your hearts to these creatures who clearly adore you (even if one of them does so while looking down her feline nose at you...).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to meet them and verify that they do exist, that Hannah does do treats for sweet potatoes, and that Zelda is the ruler of the household!
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