Meet Calypso & Rafia

Spoiler alert: This is happy story.
When I came in mid-July, I didn’t expect to adopt. I was open but… well, I had a 16 year old cat (Lila) at home to consider. Her litter mate sister died last fall; I was worried she was lonely (I adopted them as kittens, they were together their whole lives). There had been a very successful adoption event the day previously so I wasn’t sure who I would find… when I walked into the kennel and saw the first cat (fka A504185) – I knew her name was Calypso, and she was my cat.
To be fair to the universe, I also saw the as-yet not adopted kitten (fka A504251, “Boots”)… and resisted. Did I want to be the lady who has three cats??
Yes. Yes I did. I said yes to both. They couldn’t come home day one, but came home a few days later.
Calypso was so freaked out I thought she’d live in the spare room forever.
The kitten was a love from day one. Her name is now Rafia; I struggled to figure out her name until I was on a video call with my mom who looked at her and said, “Oh my sweet Rafia!”. And the name stuck.
I took the advice given by your staff and found in the handouts. We took it slow. We gave everyone time to calm down, to acclimate.
And as you can see from the picture: SUCCESS. Lila (top) used to only sleep in the bathroom; now she sleeps on the couch. She pretends to only tolerate the other two but… well, the picture doesn’t lie. Middle is Rafia (not yet six months old and already huge) and bottom is Calypso, who filled out nicely. Both of them are gentle with Lila (now 17) and absolutely ADORE each other. I walk into a room and chances are more than good that they’re curled up, together.
So as I said: this is a happy story. We all send our thanks to the Pasadena Humane Society for helping make it happen.