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Columbia-Greene Humane Society
125 Humane-Society Road
Soft Paws By Aaron Clause A Humane Tail The shelter is always thrilled to hear that an adopted animal is doing well in their new home. In fact, one of our standard procedures is to give adopters a courtesy follow-up call to see how their new family member is adapting, which helps us to give a second thanks and any advice requested by the owners. Once in a while, well also receive letters of encouragement and appreciation from adopters, and quite recently received a letter from “Cloudy,” one of our adopted kittens (written with a little help from her new owner, of course!). It was so touching to us that I requested permission from the author to share it with my faithful COURIER readers, so here it is! A HUMANE TAIL My earliest recall of my life is rather sketchy. I seem to remember being hungry and not too warm. It was then I realized my mother had abandoned us. My brother wandered off and my sisters and I were left alone and scared. I do remember a nice lady coming to our rescue and taking us off to an adoption agency. By then one of my sisters was suffering so badly from starvation, she died shortly after we had arrived. Though we found it difficult to adjust to our new surroundings with many kind strangers and lots and lots of orphans like ourselves, it was wonderful to have food and a place to sleep. It must have been about two days later that I saw them bringing my brother in. He looked real sick and I heard them saying he might not survive. One of the caregivers seemed to take a special interest in him and called him Cooper. About a week later he seemed to be feeling well enough to come out and play with all of us in the recreation area. By now we had made many new friends and were glad to introduce them to our brother. I began to notice some of my friends were missing when we went out to the play area and wondered where they went. It was then I realized others besides the caregivers were coming into the area during our playtime and walking out with some of my friends and they never returned. After listening to the conversations I knew then they were going to be adopted and go to their new homes. Although it was great to be here and have so many others to play with, except for the times we all had to go to our “rooms” after play was over, I began to wonder what it would be like to live in a real home like I heard them talk about. We were all living in the same area but I didn’t really get to see my sisters or Cooer that much except in the lay area occasionally. We all had our own rooms or shared one with another friend. By now they were calling me “Cloudy.” One day while we were in the play area, a lady stayed for a long time watching Cooper and I racing from one end of the room to the other. We always had a good time playing silly games. She tried to catch both of us but we were just too absorbed in the game we were playing to let her grab us, although she spoke very kindly to us and asked if she could hold us. We weren’t ignoring her, just trying to make the most of our time to play since we had become such good playmates. A couple days later Cooper and I were both picked up and taken for a ride to the doctor’s – where for some reason we were both to have surgery. We could not understand this since we both felt so good. However, we didn’t have a choice and soon after we went on the return ride back “home” feeling very groggy and a little achy. We stayed in our “room” for a day and then we were taken on another ride in the back seat of a car – not able to see who we were with until after a while the car stopped and we were taken into a strange home. Suddenly we were both being cuddled and softly spoken to – by guess who? The same lady who wanted to hold us while we were racing around in the play area a few days ago! We still weren’t feeling too active since our doctor visit but somehow we felt very secure and contented. We have been living in our new home for two weeks now. The lady that adopted us spoils us with love and attention and tells us we have made her very happy and she is so glad she found us – and so glad she has two of us to keep each other company. We play together more than ever racing from one end to the other of our new home. She has lots of fun toys for us but somehow we like the simple things like a little box or a paper bag to crawl in and out of. She says we’re always looking for trouble – or getting into it, so she named us Bonnie and Clyde!! At the Columbia-Greene Humane Society, where we were lucky enough to be taken to, they said we were mackerel tabby kittens because we have such pretty dark and white wide stripes from our head to our tail with little “target” circles on our sides. Both of us look alike but my distinguishing feature is my fluffy tail and Clyde’s is his six toes on the front paws. Signed, Bonnie Congratulations, Bonnie and Clyde – good luck to you and all who find new homes! If you think you could provide a loving home for a kitten like Bonnie, stop down and visit us at 125 Humane Society Road, off Route 66 (about a mile south of the intersection with Route 9H) in Hudson. Our hours are Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and until 7 p.m. on Thursday.
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