Adopting a new pet is such an exciting experience for a family, especially when the animal comes from a shelter. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), 3.4 million cats are placed in shelters in the US. The sad fact is, approximately 1.4 million of those felines are euthanized.
The problem in part is because not enough families adopt these lovely animals. For those that do, they reap the benefits of unconditional love while saving a life at the same time.
This little yellow cat was found wondering around Bronx Park in New York. The poor little cat looked like he hadn’t eaten in days. He was immediately taken to a shelter and put up for adoption. Because he looked so weak and malnourished, he would not make an ideal candidate. He was labelled “unadoptable” or in other words, he was on the list to be euthanized.
Danny and Hannah went to the shelter just in time. The couple wanted to rescue an older cat and when Hannah heard about a cat at the shelter who was about to be euthanized, she contacted the staff.
Hannah and Danny adopted the feline and named him JJ Swattington. JJ was so malnourished, he weighed only seven pounds.
“When we first got JJ, he was extremely frail so he did a lot of curling up in bed, slept, and ate most of the day. He would also purr non-stop as a coping mechanism,” David says.
Within a month of living with his new family, JJ was active and began exploring the apartment. “The shelter that found him estimated his age at 10 but as he gets healthier he seems younger and spryer! Our best guess is that he’s in the six to eight range,” Danny speculates.
JJ has transformed into a complete different cat in just six months.
According to his family, the feline loves to “swat at things, rubbing on catnip, going up and down the stairs, and of course above all eating copious amounts of wet food and taking lots of catnaps!
“He’s back to full health and causing mayhem around the apartment,” Danny jokes. The cat has doubled his weight and energy over the year since his rescue.
Danny and Hannah love having JJ in their lives and are so happy with the progress he has made in such a short period of time.
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