“The purity of a person’s heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals.” ~ Anonymous

Well, it’s officially been a year with my pretty pretty princess. I know it is not socially acceptable to post so many pictures of my cat on Facebook as I do but….bear with me. She’s stolen my heart.

Here’s our story…

Last year on April 10 I went into a local shelter, because I had seen a little calico kitty that reminded me of my Barberry on their website; Barberry had passed away half a year before. Her name was Lotus. Hello.. I love yoga—fate? The shelter counselors told me that Lotus had been their longterm resident because she had serious ‘tude.

I thought to myself—I have attitude too and we can have attitude together.

When they brought her into a meet & greet room for a visit, she escaped, ran down the hall, and hissed and swatted at the adoption counselors. They went to grab the net to catch her, but I walked up instead and gave her a little scruffy scruff, picked her up, smelled her head, brought her back to her cage and asked the drop-jawed shelter counselors when I could take her home.

Here’s her on our first night together, when she was about 3 pounds lighter…

Lotus sitting like a lady. Rare is it that both paws touch the ground at once. One paw down, the other picks up!

What I love about Lotus (and all cats) is that you have to earn their love.

And when they trust you, they will love on you as much as you love on them.

Lotus sometimes gets embarrassed about my love for her and how I broadcast it to the world.

But she usually gets over it pretty quickly …

I’m always trying to make her happy…with new hairbrushes.

…window seats

…entertainment (birdfeeders!)

And all of this making her happy makes me really happy. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Millions of cats and dogs are killed each year in shelters.

Adopt a pet today and see for yourself how changing the life of an animal sometimes changes yours even more.

Bonus…At the risk of becoming shunned from my social networks, I’d like to share my first video with Lotus on our second day together. Music: The Avett Brothers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07trF7dH338&feature=youtu.be

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Editor: Kate Bartolotta