Calvin

We adopted Calvin (who was named Wilson at your shelter) May 2nd, 2002. He was in the shelter in the room that you designated for SHY cats. Many of these cats seemed overlooked by potential adopters because they were not as outgoing as the others.

But Calvin "spoke" to me with his eyes. Even though it was my intention to adopt a real "lap" cat that day, I could not get Calvin out of my head. I knew that he needed me.

Those first few months were a challenge. First, he would not eat. For DAYS, he was so scared that I could not tempt him with even the best of choice foods. Once we got past that hurdle, the next one was the fact that I could not pick him up to hold him.

I did get him to the point where he enjoyed petting, but every time I went to hold him he would panic and regress in his behavior. It frightened me because I worried about how would I take him to the vet? how would I trim his nails? If I could not hold him, I imagined all sorts of bad things might happen. But with a lot of time and a lot of patience, we over came this hurdle as well.

Today, Calvin does not hide from strangers. He loves our attention. He races to greet us first thing in the morning. And I can even pick him up and hold him for brief periods of time. He is a welcome addition to our family and we love him just the way he is.

Jen Luckenbach