Nate's Story / Cross posted on Catster

"This past august my 14 year old passed at home from a long fight with inflammatory bowel disease. It was horrible as this huge vacuum of space opened up in my life and I was sad and depressed for days, yet grateful he died here, with me and wasn't alone. After several days I realized my other cat was also now alone as they had been raised together since they were both kittens. I am often away during the day and felt the best way to deal with his sadness/loneliness(and mine) was to immediately get a new cat. I had always gotten cats when they were kittens but, looking at the shelters, reading online listings and going to the adoption fairs I realized there were far more cats than kittens. I didn't want to get a kitten to pair with my other cat even though I knew that might work, because he was used to a grown cat. Instead I started looking at adult cats. I looked for about two weeks, everyday both in shelters and online. Then I found Nate, an owner who could no longer care for him had left him at the animal control shelter here in SF. My partner pointed out his listing -as a 'small buff siamese mix' with the cutest picture of his face. I called up to see if he was still available but they said he had been adopted. Darn! So I kept looking, and for some reason the listing for him stayed up. A few days went by and I started to wonder if it had been a mistake, so I checked again. Sure enough, he had been 'test driven' by someone who wanted a friendly cat and spent three days under the sofa hiding which was apparently enough for them to turn him back over to animal control. They never took down the listing though so he had been stuck there in a shelter for a while, then moved to a PetFoodExpress here in town, to their adoption center. Given up by a different owner, stressed from losing his 'real' owner and now sad and very very unhappy from being moved around so much he had even taken to sleeping in his litterbox and had stopped eating. His lethargy was probably interpreted by some as his real personality and not one person had looked at him in almost two weeks. Things were not looking good. When I found out he was still there, I RAN the four blocks down the street to the store and immediately saw him sitting alone in his box starring out into space. One problem though...he was not a 'small siamese mix" but rather a HUGE white, longhaired tabby/maine coon cross of some sort with deep set blue eyes-think an albino raccoon and you've got the look AND the size. Waaay more cat than I was thinking of getting as my other cat is much smaller. But I figured, lets see how he is anyway. The adoption folks brought him out and he promptly stuffed his head inside my coat and went to sleep. Well, that was all she wrote for this big softie! That was September...he is now a totally different cat. Still skittish and wary at times but he continues to warm up and be more and more comfortable. He and my other cat share food, the multi-storied cat stand and now sleep together though they maintain separate boxes. And yes, he DID hide under my couch for about a week but I made sure he had everything he needed and one day, he came out. 2 weeks later he let me pet him. 1 month later he let me pet his tummy. Now he plays catch, romps and plays, vocalizes and is just a sweet loving cat as I knew he would be. he just needed a chance - so please don't turn your back on older cats. They have so much love to give!