The Cat No One Wanted

Meet Leela. The Fuzz was getting lonely while home alone. He would put his paws on the front door as I was locking it as if to say "Don't go!". We decided to get another cat to keep him company.  I had taken a few days off work to have some extra time with Katherine.  Steve and I decided that would be a good time to get our new cat.  The morning of October 10th we went to the Humane Society.  It was really heartbreaking to go in there and see all the kitties in their kennels.  There were adult cats and even little kittens.  It broke my heart to see tiny kitties there.  The Fuzz is two so we wanted someone who would play with him.  We decided a cat age 2 or younger would be a good match. We walked along the kennels and looked at the cats, reading their papers.  We needed a cat who is good with kids.  Leela's kennel was one towards the end.  She looked at me with her head hung slightly as if  to say "You're not going to want me.  Nobody wants me."  The look on her face broke my heart.  The feeling behind the look was one I had experienced many times.  Her paper said her name was Callie, good with kids, litter box trained and liked to play with cat toy balls.  "Can we see this one?" I asked the Humane Society volunteer.  Steve was also looking at another cat named Buzz.  "Can we see Buzz too?" Steve asked.  We saw Leela first in the small room designated for meeting the animals.  The volunteer put her down on the bench and left us with her.  Steve sat down on the bench on her blind side and I sat on the other.  She hoped down and cowered against the other wall.  We picked her up and spent some time with her, holding her near Katherine.  She did pretty well.  After that we met Buzz.  He was extremely affectionate with Katherine and purred the whole time.  "Which one should we choose?" I asked Steve.  "I kinda like Buzz," he said.  And so the decision was made to adopt Buzz.  I almost bawled at the thought of not getting Leela.  The thought of her staying in her kennel feeling so unwanted was too much.  "Do a lot of people look at her?" I asked the volunteer trying to reassure myself that she would be adopted soon.  "Yeah, a lot of people look at her."  Before we filled out the adoption paperwork for Buzz, we mentioned we had another cat.  When the Humane Society manager found out The Fuzz was a male, she cautioned us against adopting Buzz.  Because The Fuzz and Buzz are both males we could potentially have an alpha male problem with both of them trying to assert their dominance.  This problem might never go away.  "Callie seemed nice," I said to Steve.  We decided to take another look at her.  We went back into the cat room and looked at Leela again.  "Let's get her.  We'll take Callie," we told the Humane Society volunteer.  When filling out the paperwork, I asked the volunteer if Leela had been at the Humane Society for awhile.  "Yes, she has."  We filled out the paperwork and paid the adoption fee plus a $10 donation towards Buzz's adoption fee.  (I felt bad leaving him there too but I was certain someone would adopt him.  I checked back a few weeks after adopting Leela.  Buzz was adopted!)  As we drove home with Leela, we talked about names for her.  Her name at the Humane Society had been Callie but that was not up to par with The Fuzz.  I wanted her to have a name that referenced her only having one eye.  Steve suggested Leela like the character from Futurama.  We both liked it and agreed.  It took Leela and The Fuzz a few days to warm up to each other.  By Sunday Leela was running around the house with a plastic cat toy ball in her mouth with her head held high and a sparkle in her eye.  Today she spends her days playing with cat toys, lounging, play fighting with The Fuzz, following me around the house and letting Katherine smack her in excitement.  (We're still teaching Katherine to pet appropriately.  She's getting the hang of it gradually.)  I'll never forget the look on Leela's face that Sunday though.  Someone had finally wanted her.