Rescue Tails / 10…9….8….7….6….5….
I can almost feel the weight lifting right off my shoulders. A New Year has begun and for us that means a year filled with opportunities to find the animals in our care their new life with a new family. Before we get started with new Rescue Tails for the new year I wanted to highlight, in no particular order, our top ten adoption stories of 2020 and what made those adoptions unforgettable.
Lucky Foot, as we later named her, was an abandoned kitten found by a Good Samaritan. This tiny kitten was sitting all alone in the middle of the street. When she arrived at our Marathon Campus we realized immediately something was very wrong! Her front legs were twisted and contorted in a manner that made us fear she had been seriously injured. Thankfully, the abnormality was a birth defect and the kitten was in no pain. She was just born different! She was placed in foster and learned to do everything a normal kitten does: play, eat and run, even if sometimes it was only on her back two feet! She captured the heart of her foster mom, who knew her home would be her furrever home!
Gimli, an adorable pup with short legs and enormous ears was found as a stray near Big Pine Key, wandering all alone. When it was time for him to go up for adoption he quickly caught the eye of an enamored young woman in Pennsylvania! In a true “love at first sight” moment, his new mom made the 1,300 mile trip from Philadelphia to the Florida Keys to adopt her new best friend.
As a no-time-limit shelter, our healthy adoptable animals can stay with us as long as it takes to find the right family. Cloudy, our longest resident cat had been with us for just over four years, overlooked time and time again. Year after year as excited families came to our Catio in Marathon we always made sure to point out little Cloudy and share her longevity at the shelter. Time after time a match wasn’t made until 1,514 days later when Cloudy finally met her match and was adopted!
In early March, Tanya, another long-term resident cat at our Marathon Campus was placed into a foster home as a companion to keep a lonely, part-time resident company during quarantine. During that month together, the two became an inseparable pair. When it came time to return home, all the way across the country, Tanya’s plans changed from flying home solo, to driving over 3,000 miles to California to bring Tanya home forever. After 960 days in the shelter and a cross-country trip, Tanya was adopted.
We love our senior animals, seniors always hold a special place in our hearts. It can be heartbreaking to see a grey muzzle and soft eyes staring back at you, confused as to where they are and who we are. At 16 years old Snuggles was the oldest cat at our Marathon Campus. With cloudy eyes, an impressive meow and her gorgeous Siamese coat we surely thought that despite her age, a cat as beautiful as she was would be adopted. After a year we shared her story during Adopt a Senior Pet Month and finally received the perfect applicant who had two senior Siamese cats of her own. Snuggles took the drive to her new home and fits in perfectly with her new family.
Harley was another resident cat at our Marathon Campus who went into a foster home to keep company for a lonely local during quarantine. Although she had resided at our shelter for over 1,000 days, Harley moved herself right in and made herself at home. The weeks passed and it became apparent that Harley really loved her new home and family, and her foster family really loved her. 1,086 days after first arriving at our doors, Harley was finally adopted.
Katniss came to the shelter in the spring of 2018. After arriving at Our Key West campus, it was discovered that Katniss was pregnant. She went to a foster home where she delivered and nursed eight healthy puppies. After all eight pups were adopted, Katniss returned to the shelter where we hoped she would soon find a furever home of her own. Unfortunately, that furever home did not materialize, and nearly two years later Katniss remained at the shelter. Finally, in March, Katniss was moved to a foster home and foster mom Heidi did a great job introducing Katniss to a normal home life filled with all the love, security, and adventure that she had been missing from her unconventional upbringing and time at the shelter.
Unfortunately, when Heidi had to return to work, Katniss returned to the shelter. A silver lining appeared, however, when Heidi’s neighbor Hannah learned that Katniss was back and offered to take up the job of fostering her. In the two weeks that Hannah spent with Katniss, she fell completely in love, and decided to give Katniss the furever home that she had been dreaming of for the last two-and-a-half years.
Oma came to us in April of 2016 as a two-month-old feral kitten. Despite being a pretty cat, Oma’s incredibly shy personality prevented her from getting adopted. Even after mastering the Jackson Galaxy Cat Pawsitive training and becoming an incredible high-fiver, Oma’s antisocial ways kept her from finding the furever home that we all wanted for her. In 2019, Jackie first saw Oma on our website and noted how long she had been at the shelter. Jackie was living in California at the time but was planning a permanent move to the Keys in the future; she decided that if Oma was still at the shelter when she moved, she would adopt her. In June of 2020, Oma finally found her furever home when she went to live with Jackie and her other cat Poppy.
Although we don’t know much about the first nine years of Reacher’s life, what we do know is that when he came to us, he was a sweet but fearful little dog with some significant health issues. Reacher had a painful hernia that required two major surgeries to repair. He also had dental problems and had to have several teeth removed. Fortunately, he recovered well from his physical ailments and was ready to find a new furever home.
Unfortunately, his fearfulness and anxiety were a lot harder to overcome. During his time in foster care with a staff member, Reacher had his own designated “safe spaces” in the home, a consistent daily routine, and a confident foster sister to help him build up his own confidence. With these measures in place, Reacher was able to build a sense of security and his fearful behaviors began to subside; he was finally ready to successfully transition to his final furever home. This furever home came in the form of a couple who had previously adopted from us. One of their dogs had recently passed and they thought Reacher would make a good partner for their ten-year-old pup, Lady. Reacher’s new family reports that he has been a perfect addition to the family, and he and Lady have become inseparable best friends.
In the fall of 2020, our Marathon shelter got a call from a community member about a dog that a visiting family member had left behind who had recently given birth to 11 puppies! The family who was caring for the momma dog, Mable, and her puppies wanted the best for them, but they knew that caring for this big doggy family was too difficult for them to tackle alone so they called us for help. The family brought Mable and her ten-day-old puppies to the Key West shelter where they would be cared for until they were ready to move to a foster home. In her time at the shelter, Mable quickly endeared herself to all the staff and volunteers. She was such a sweet, patient, and loving mother to all her puppies. When she went with them to the foster home, she was kind and loving to all her foster family members, even the cats. Her sweet temperament seemed to have been passed on to her puppies, who were also very gentle and loving; they quickly found their permanent furever homes.
Once her puppies were old enough to be on their own, it was time for Mable to receive the same kind of attentive care that she had given to her babies. Mable returned to the shelter where she was treated for some minor medical conditions. With the help of the staff, and with new doggy best friend Georgia, Mable soon returned to health and was ready to find a furever home. Although there was a lot of interest in Mable from the community, the staff member who had been working closely with Mable for months decided that she couldn’t bear to part with her. Mable was adopted by this staff member, and has become a perfect addition to the family. She has been enjoying life as part of her new furever family, which includes two doggy siblings, and all the love she can handle.
Thank you! Best wishes to all of you from all of us at the Florida Keys SPCA for a safe and Happy New Year.
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