Zoey: Do It My Way... Or Else!

We thought Zoey was afraid of people. When this beautiful, longhaired black cat first arrived at our Shelter, no one could get near her. Staff, volunteers, and potential adopters – it didn't matter. Anyone who put a hand near Zoey's cage got an earful of hissing and snarling. And, anyone foolish enough to try picking her up was likely to get swatted and scratched.

Those of us who love animals know they are as individual as people, and sometimes just as tricky to deal with. That doesn’t make them less lovable, but Zoey was a challenge, to say the least. We worked and worked for months to make her less aggressive with no success.

Then we noticed two things. After playtime, Zoey would fight not to go back in her cage. And, whenever we let Zoey do things her way, she was a sweetie, so we began to give her more playtime out of her cage. Soon she became a fixture hanging out on the windowsill or on top of the fridge in our Meow Chow room (that's where we keep the cat food). Zoey would watch the birds outside with great interest, but she would still terrorize anyone who tried to reach up and pat her.

Given Zoey's cranky personality, many shelters would have given up on her, but we’ve had hard-to-place cats before. We were sure that there must be a way to get past her fear of people. Then we made an important discovery – Zoey was terrified when she saw hands coming directly at her, but if you scooped her up from behind, she was fine. Little by little, we learned other tricks that allowed us to touch her without triggering her spitfire.

We're not sure whether we won Zoey over, or if she won us over. As we got to know her better, we learned that she is just a cat who insists on having things her own way. Once we realized that Zoey could be a safe and loving cat under the right circumstances, we were able to find her a new home with a woman who has had cats all her life and had no problem with doing things Zoey’s way.

A couple of weeks after Zoey went to her new home, her adopter called to tell us how her new pet was doing. "I love her," she said. "She is my best pal. The funny thing is that she always wants to hang out with me in the kitchen!"