Told by their adopter Maria E.

One of our cats, an elderly cat named Billy, whom we adopted when he was 11, passed away last July at age 15. After his death, the house was quiet with our one remaining (formerly feral) cat, LJ. We love her of course, but after several months following Billy’s death, I was longing for some truly socialized house cats to join our family.

I started looking more seriously at the emails that were going around from the various rescue groups, including Precious Pets Almost Home (PPAH where I had started to volunteer after Billy’s death). I was hoping to find a cat or two that were super sweet and would be very loving and tolerant with my seven-year-old daughter who was never that well treated by either Billy or LJ (although she loved them both to pieces). One day I saw an email from PPAH about Basket and Tasket, almost-two-year-old orange tabby sisters whose family had to give them back to PPAH ony after having them a year when their youngest child turned out to be allergic. They were obviously very cute cats and were bonded, which is exactly what we were looking for to add to our family.  However, after visiting them in their foster home, we couldn’t tell if they were a match for our family because Basket was pretty wound up and poor Tasket was absolutely terrified of us, shaking and cowering when I picked her up. So, I spoke with Kari at PPAH, and she kindly agreed to let us foster them for as long as it took to make up our minds.

In January 2020, the orange sisters moved into our house. We had to introduce them to our resident cat, LJ, who is extremely nervous of other cats, especially after she was significantly bullied by Billy over the years he was with us. She was upset at first, but after a careful introduction process, and after she realized Basket and Tasket weren’t out to get her, she calmed down and accepted them. They mostly steered clear of her at first because of her scary (former feral) demeanor. Then later, they realized it was mostly bravado, and Basket took to occasionally bopping her on the head as she walked by, which LJ wasn’t happy about, but she realized pretty quickly that Basket was harmless and generally ignored her. At the same time, Basket and Tasket started showing their true personalities and getting very lovey and endearing with us. Tasket relaxed after a few weeks with us and started seeking us out more and more.

Basket was the social butterfly and would follow me around like a little sheep during the first months at our house. She would constantly flop over next to me and want to be petted and tummy rubbed, eventually earning herself the nickname of Floppy. Long story short, after a couple of months, we decided the sisters were a great match for our household and we completed the adoption process. Basket and Tasket were renamed by my daughter to Cinnamon Cream and Peanut. Cinnamon has worked her way into our hearts by being a complete nut, a silly character, a social butterfly, a big, cuddly lovebug, and sometimes a little bit of a trouble maker. She’s like the tomboy of the duo.

Peanut on the other hand, has slowly warmed up to us and is a quieter, more demure companion. She loves to rub against our backs and cuddle when none of the other cats are around. However, she is a huge hunter and begs every morning to play with the wand toy. She knows which cabinet it is stored in and will stand in front of the cabinet, meowing at us to play with her, quivering her tail in expectation. Cinnamon will sometimes sleep on my daughter’s bed for a while she is falling asleep at night, which we all love because it is what Billy used to do in the months before he passed away.

The cats are absolutely great with my daughter, and for that we are very happy and grateful. It was especially fun to have them around during at-home schooling and Covid quarantining days. My daughter had fun showing them off to her classmates over Zoom. We hope they have long, happy lives with us.

Thank you to PPAH for rescuing them twice.