Benji, Ox and Audrey

This is my attempt to make a difference by sharing good stories, hoping that they give you some hope and inspiration.  You can find out more about why I'm doing this on my recent blog RIGHT HERE.

Today's story is a personal one I shared on a recent edition of Psychic Tapestry.

Last summer, I went to an animal shelter for the first time.

We were looking for a kitten.  We live out in the country, and after our last cat passed away, nature has started to encroach a little too close for my comfort.  So we were going to get a cat to keep all the other little critters at bay.

I expected to find mostly kittens and puppies there.  Unwanted and stray.  Instead, I found something much different.

All the dogs were adult.  Some were only a few years old, but most were into double digits.  And they weren't strays.

Benji's decided, after many years, that he was now going to be an outside dog.  When Benji tried repeatedly to get back inside to be with his family, they decided they didn't want him any more and dumped him off at the shelter.

He's eleven.

It's beyond my ability to understand how someone could do that.  

There were lots of other cells there, and plenty of others who I'm sure had similar stories.  And until that day, I had no idea that kind of thing happened.

And it happens a lot.

Fortunately, here in San Diego, animal shelters are no-kill.  So the clock wasn't ticking on Benji.  Though I don't imagine it was much of a life, going from being part of a family, to being somewhere strange, where most of your day is in a small, cement cell.

And while the shelter is no-kill, I did discover that they have kind of a fine-print disclaimer.  When an animal is determined "unadoptable" that put it down.

What does "unadoptable" mean?  Six months?  A year?  I don't know.  I do know that while I was there, a family was walking around looking at the dogs, and I heard them say more than once that "this one is too old".

Picking out a kitten was easy.

​Her name is Audrey.  Our previous gray cat was named Seymour, after Rick Moranis' character in "Little Shop Of Horrors".  

So she had to be Audrey.

No idea what her backstory is, or if she even has one.  She's just one of many kittens growing up in a small cage in a shelter.

And now she's romping around our house, hiding her toys under the treadmill so she doesn't have to share them with Benji.

Not that the two of them don't get along.  They do.  Most of the time.

So, we picked out Audrey and turned around and met Ox.  Like Benji, he's eleven.  His owner was moved into an assisted-living facility, and she couldn't have pets.  So after a little over a decade, Ox found himself in a small new home with strangers.  And he had already been there for several months.

So we took him, too.

He was scared of us, at first.  And really, who could blame him?  He was a big, old cat who had lost his family, had lived in a cage and was now taken to another home.

He mostly lived under our couch for the first few months.  But he grew to trust us, and now he regularly visits and snuggles with my wife.

I didn't do anything that anyone else couldn't have done.  Am I certainly not the only one that has done this.  I'm no hero

Truth is, what I shared here is not so amazing.  I was even hesitant to share it at all.  It wasn't really heroic.

Then again, to Benji, Audrey and Ox, it might have been.