Bella, who made our daughter smile again...

As for Bella, she is the light of our lives and we are so indebted to the resuce group, Elaine included, who made this all happen. A year ago August we lost our 18 year old Maine and we were so sad, but especially my daughter. We found your organization through a friend and thank goodness, you sent us Bella. Not only did we rescue her from a kill factory (she had lost her brother the day before) but she really rescued our family. Our daughter smiled once more, and we now had a lot of laughs and joy where once there had been sorrow. Even our dog, who our vet had diagnosed as dying, is now a young pup again.

As for Bella, she is a trip. She is still a little skittish with strangers and we really don't let her out in front at all because I can't get her back without a lot of coaching, although she is a real escape artist and we have to be careful. She plays in the backyard (which she can't escape from) chasing butterflies and acting like a tiger. Each morning she runs to my bed and perches herself on my shoulder and bats my face until I wake up. She watches the window for us to come home and greets us at the door when we do. She has her routines and that is really good. She plays fetch (who knew?) with a little ball for hours with us. She'll put her ball in a bowl of water and lay it at our feet if we are not paying attention to her. She chases flies. She plays hide and seek under the couch forever. She hides from the dog and when he turns the corner she'll pounce on his back, but never uses her claws. She watches TV. She sits like a Meer Cat on her back feet to look around. She knows her name and our tone of voice and if she gets in trouble she ditches under the bed and then when we walk by she'll put out her paw as if it were a white flag. She comes to us when she wants to go to bed and nuzzles us. She pulls herself up to counters to look around- I even saw her pull herself up and climb over my window shutters to get outside......what arms! And she kisses us all day long. Even my mother who rarely holds cats, loves this one. She is really a gem.

So, we thank you and hope that you've enjoyed listening to our kitty-tales.