Adopting an Adult Cat into a Forever Home

His name is Sheldon (Sheldon Cooper when he is in trouble), but this wasn't always his name. Let me explain...

It all started with a gift opening from our marriage. Our very good friend Devon knew that we were in the market for a new family member since we had lost our precious Gama's in February of 2012 so her gift to us was a gift certificate for a cat from our local SPCA.

We had decided that since our new pet was going to be part of our family that the whole family would be involved with the adoption process. So this is the how we decided on adopting an older cat and why we are now so glad that we did. There is definitely a plus side to adopting an older pet. This is officially his forever home.

The search for Sheldon: We must have spent about 2 hours in the SPCA that day checking out all of the kittens and cats that were there. We let each one individually out of their cages to give them some cuddles and one-on-one attention as well as to see how they interacted with us and the kids. 

We went in looking for a kitten but for the most part we simply wanted a cat that was young enough that it would live for quite a while. We had adopted an older cat the last time and had gotten our Gammas as a rescue when she 16 so the kids really didn't get as many years to love her as they would have wanted. We realized how important a decision it is to pick a cat or kitten that will be a part of our family for the rest of their life so we didn't rush into the choosing of one. 

(Photo: Our Sheldon just minutes after we brought him home). We watched how each cat played with the kids and how gentle they were with being held and petted and just their overall disposition with our family as a whole. The choice finally came down to a pitch black female cat named Karma and a huge grey male tabby named Noah. While Karma who was around 1 year old played great with the kids as well as the toys, Noah (soon to be Sheldon) who was 3 years old just had this want to be loved and touched and petted look.

I left the kitty room momentarily to talk to the staff at the front and I guess the whole time I was gone he waited for me at the door (like he knew I was talking to the staff about him). Even though I said there was a choice between the two cats there was really no contest. We belonged to Sheldon from the moment we walked into that room.

I filled out the paper work and signed the check and Sheldon walked right into our cat carrier without so much as a blink. We became a family just like that. He had found his forever home and he was saying, "About time you showed up, now get me the heck out of this place."

Sheldon almost immediately says thank you in his own special way: So I was sitting on the couch with my arm draped over the top of it and Sheldon was about 1/2 way down the couch on the other end. Every couple of seconds he would inch his way closer and closer. Next thing I knew he had grabbed my arm and was hugging it with his paw (he's got pretty big paws doesn't he?).

Right after I had taken this picture he completely engulfed himself all over my arm and face and was busily making love (as I call it) rubbing his face all over mine (making sure I have his scent and belong to him lol) while licking me. I'm not sure if this was his way of saying, "Thank-you for adopting me", but whatever he was trying to portray was all good by me. That big gray tabby cat had officially wormed his way into my heart. If I had not known it before I definitely now knew that this was his forever home.

Naming our new pet took a lot of thought: When Sheldon was named Noah it didn't suit him at all. Personally I don't really think he really cared much for that name either. He didn't respond to it when he was called, not even one little twitch, so we all sat down and thought of names we might like. I wrote them all on a piece of paper for consideration. Toward the end of the week I knew we had to find a name for our "nameless" cat so I started to push for us to pick the name that would be his forever.
We started by process of elimination, taking out any names that didn't get a majority vote (and at this time we didn't even have Sheldon on the list). We were down to about 5 names when our 7 year old son said "I should have said Sheldon for a name". We are all in love with The Big Bang Theory so I wrote it on the list and we continued on with the process. It finally came down to two names with my husband and I having the final say in the name. Sheldon finally had a name. It took him a little while to get used to it but since he was never attached to Noah, we knew that it would all be okay.

Sheldon's First Vet Appointment. He's How Old? 

Adopting a Pet Means a Visit to the Vet is an Immediate Must: When you adopt an animal from our community SPCA the pet gets a free visit to the vet (just to make sure your new family member is healthy). The lady who Sheldon lived with before us became ill and could not take care of him anymore so we discovered at our vet appointment that Sheldon had a really severe case of ear mites. It must have been bugging him very much. The vet gave him some ear mite medication to clear them up and also gave him his first immunizations and rabies shot. The vet also discovered that our 17 lb adult cat was not the 3 years old like we had originally thought. We were informed that he was actually a teenager at around the 11/2 old year mark. 

To be approved to own a pet where we live we needed to get our vet to sign papers stating that our animal has had their shots up to date, and have been either spayed or neutered. That was easy enough. After Sheldon had been all checked out and given a clean bill of health we went back home with our wonderful new not-so-little boy.

Our first Christmas with our new pet: My family were spending Christmas at my mother-in-laws who lives just over an hour away. With us only having Sheldon for a couple of months and him never being home for very long by himself I was uncomfortable leaving him home alone so we asked if we could bring him along for the couple of days we were going to be staying there. Of course she said yes (He is one of her grandsons too you know).

My mother-in-law has a shih tzu poodle cross named Button and although she had come over to our place before and things were okay, this visit between the two of them was going to be days and not just an hour. They did amazing though (as you can see in the picture) and got along just great. They even did some cuddling on the couch together. 

Adopting an adult cat is so wonderfully rewarding. Their unique personality shines through no matter what their age. Sheldon is a bit of a silly boy but he's one of the family so we understand. We love our boy and wouldn't have him any other way. Don't rule out an older animal as an adoption choice or you could miss out on a truly wonderful family pet. Please spay or neuter your pet.