For a very brief time, we were a two-cat family. Our senior citizen cat, Sophie, seemed to get more neurotic as she got older, and we had hoped that bringing a younger cat home would give her some company when one of her “kids” was missing. That kind of turned out to not be the case, as Sophie saw him as more of a nuisance, lol. The much-loved, super awesome cat Sophie passed on several weeks ago, at age 15. 

The younger cat, Doug, made those following days much lighter, because really, it’s hard not to laugh at a cat who attacks people’s feet, chases his tail, and carries a toy around to look for someone willing to play with him. The younger kiddo and I came across Doug at Pounce Cat Cafe, which is partnered with the Charleston Animal Society. He sort of tricked us, though. It was mid-afternoon, and he was snoozing in a curled-up ball. He *looked little and cute, and he liked to snuggle.

Turns out, he’s not little, lol. He has some crazy long legs, sort of like a newborn foal. And he’s verrrrry long. Between his legs and his length, he barely squeezes into the carrier that held Sophie, who weighed about 6 pounds more, lol. Oh, and mid-afternoon, it turns out, is his usual naptime. When it’s not naptime, it’s chaos time. We now have cat toys all over the house. Doug loves to play. Bells are his favorite. BTW, those things hurt about as much as Legos when you step on them. He loves the screened balcony and will wake from a dead sleep if he hears someone open that door. He’s a food thief, but only with meat. In his own cat way, he says, “No, thank you,” to vegetables. Doug has a knack for finding candy wrappers, which we then have to try to take from him without losing any fingers. As we’re fond of saying, he’s like a small child. He may also be slightly defective, as he squeaks instead of meowing, lol.

And we love him. He makes us smile, makes us laugh, and still loves to snuggle. Each morning, after his preferred human leaves for school, he curls up in my lap and stretches his paw out to get my attention. Chin rubs, of course. And to think this little guy was once on the Time’s Up list at the Colleton County Animal Shelter. The Charleston Animal Society retrieved him and sent him to Pounce.