Pearl: the road from abuse to love

Pearl was an extra special kitty who needed an extra special family; he had spent too much time in his life locked in a dark closet with no food or water.  As a result, Pearl needed to be close to his human all the time.  Foster Dad Henry loved Pearl and took such good care of him; now he is happily living with James and Rebecca.  Here is an update from them:

"Pearl's hugs are often a prelude to nursing, during which he sometimes gets carried away and gets into a nice drooling trance.  Drool aside, we don't mind this.  In fact, as he's gotten more comfortable with us, his drive to nurse is less constant, and we've started sometimes saying to him, "no nursing," which, believe it or not, often works.  Other than that, he is the perfect cat.  We don't find him needy at all.  We love it when he meets us at the top of the steps when we get home.  And we love having him around, which usually just means him observing us from the ground or a table or countertop.  He seems to come and lay by us or on us at just the right times, when we sit down to relax.  We think he likes his surroundings, especially our flokati rug and he likes to sit on a little end table near the window and look down at the street below.  He's taken to climbing up and perching in our loft and at nights he sleeps with us in our bedroom, either at the foot or above our heads.  He doesn't like it if we close the door on him and at some point will "scratch" on the door.  But since he has no claws it makes a sweet little sound and we know to let him in.

We've started adding a little wet food to his diet, which he likes, but he doesn't complain if we skip a day.  We thought he may have dropped a little weight and thought it might have had to do with the transition, but he doesn't seem to be stressed.  He's a healthy weight, but we're making plenty of food and water available (as well as the occasional treat) so he can get what he needs.

He's not into two of the three toys we got him, but he does like to chase one little mouse with a downy tail.  Sometimes he'll get rambunctious and dart from one room to the next for a while, at which point he'll go sliding on the wooden floors or linoleum in the kitchen, which he seems to like and which we find hilarious."  -- James