Living the Dream

When I was a little girl, I had this fantasy that I was going to grow up to live alone in a fancy apartment in New York City with a white Persian. Fast forward 25 years or so, and I'm all grown up. I don't live in New York City (although I did try Brooklyn, it wasn't for me). I do live alone (in my little bungalow in North Portland). And as of 3 days ago, I do have the Persian. Meet Boo Radley (who I have also been calling Boosh).

He's not fluffy and white, actually he's kind of scruffy and matted. But he is very friendly and very sweet. I adopted him from the Oregon Humane Society where I volunteer. Boo had been there since late October when his family had to give him up because they couldn't afford his vet care. Boo had lived with them for 9 years. He was declawed when he was little. When most cats are declawed, the vet cuts through the bone of the third digit of the toe so that the cat doesn't have the part of the bone that the claws grow from. In Boo's case not enough of the third bone was removed and his claws started to grow back inside his paw and became infected. There was a possibility Boo's paw was going to need to be amputated. One more reason not to declaw your cats!

Boo was lucky and his surgery went well. When I first saw him, he was in the back kennels at OHS and had a huge purple bandage on his paw. He was heartbreakingly cute. Now he's all healed up, and he's recovering from a viral upper respiratory infection he caught at the shelter. I should have known he'd be coming home with me when I started making trips to volunteer at the humane society just so I could visit him in the ICU! I lived in a state of denial for about a month until he became available for adoption right before Christmas.

I feel sorry that Boo and his family can't be reunited, but I feel pretty lucky to have this guy in my life now. We'll see if the Bus feels the same way. He can't meet Boo until his URI is cleared up. Things are about to get interesting in my household.