Deming came to us as a teeny kitten with a bad case of feline herpes that fused his eye shut and ultimately required surgery. His herpes, though no longer dangerous to him, still manifests in some sneezes and eye goop, but it’s nothing a damp wet rag can’t handle. Unfortunately, he was overlooked because of this blemish and didn’t get adopted until he’d been with us for a full year. Unfortunately, he was returned because of the ‘maintenance’ on his eye.
It took a few months, but we finally adopted him out again to a very special boy named Tommy.
Tommy was born autistic and rarely speaks, as is often the case for folks with autism. His parents tried all sorts of things to help their little boy develop. They tried a dog, based on other peoples’ experiences, but Tommy wasn’t interested. Then one day, he met his first cat. His parents were astounded: “We hadn’t heard him talk so much in so long…” they said. Turns out they’d needed a cat all along, but they needed a very special cat. See, Tommy was a twin, and his twin brother didn’t have autism, and the twins had an older brother, too, and they all had a little baby in the house. So not only did they need a kitty that clicked for Tommy, they needed a kitty that was comfortable with a household of kids, a dog (the one they’d tried for Tommy), and gentle enough with the baby.
After we heard what kind of kitty they needed, we knew exactly who to introduce them to. See, Deming was raised by Wild Blue, so he was extremely gentle and well socialized…but he’d been at the Sanctuary, too, and we knew he was good at the constant churn of people and cats and events. In short: he was sweet and chaos tolerant, and never got enough pets. Maybe three boys could sate his love for attention.
After Tommy had been petting Deming for a while at the sanctuary, his mom asked: “Do you want to take Deming home?” Tommy nodded. His mom prompted: “What do you want to do?” “Take him,” the boy answered. “What’s his name?” His mom asked, and Tommy said: “Deming.” That was enough for her, and an adoption was done.
Turns out, Deming was absolutely the perfect choice to both teach responsibility and to provide nonjudgmental nurturing. “We love him so much,” his new momma wrote, “And he’s the boss of the house. My son Tommy is doing awesome with talking to him and making sure he’s fed and litter cleaned. Deming has a lot of patience with our baby too.”
We cannot be happier.
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