- Joined
- Jan 5, 2020
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Kila's story begins a long time before we met her! We got a lot of this information from her original foster mother.
She and her three sisters were trapped at a shipyard across the river from where we are living now in summer 2016. They were feral kittens. Kila was the last kitten to be trapped, and they quickly discovered that she had ingested antifreeze. She needed intensive care to survive but was luckily and miraculously nursed back to health. The original woman who cared for her named her Kataki, but when she was given over to the cat rescue that fostered her longterm, they changed her name to Kila to go with the other two sisters' names (Kiki and Kiwi). Her third sister, Fiona, found a home before reaching the rescue.
Kila lived with her foster mom and her sister Kiwi for almost 10 months. They were carefully socialized. Kiki was adopted out sometime along the way. During their time in foster care, she and Kiwi became bonded, and had to be adopted together. They were adopted by a family along with a third cat from the rescue, Cricket.
Here's Kila (front) and Kiwi (just behind her).
Kila lived with that family for 2.5 years. Sometime along the way, Kiwi escaped from the family's house. She somehow made it all the way back to her foster mother's home. But when she got there, she had reverted back to a feral state. She was unable to be re-adopted out and was placed in feral sanctuary, where she still lives now.
Meanwhile, Kila and Cricket were still living with the family that had adopted them. But in the fall of 2019, their foster mother saw a post on Facebook from the family offering both cats up free to a good home. The family had signed an agreement to return the cats to the rescue if they couldn't care for them anymore, so the foster mother took them both back.
At this point, the rescue was working with a cat café in our city, so Kila and Cricket were placed there. A few weeks later my boyfriend and I stopped by. We were planning to get a cat at the start of the new year. I grew up with cats but my boyfriend had never had one -- he hadn't had any pets at all, actually. He grew up extremely allergic, but had been taking allergy shots and was now effectively immune to cat allergens (the shots worked amazingly well!). So we thought, why not stop in and take a look?
Towards the end of our visit, I was sitting on the floor and Kila walked right up to me and plopped down next to me like she'd been doing it every day of her life. She was the only cat at the café who had really come up and approached us proactively. A few minutes later she got up and jumped on the couch, where my boyfriend was sitting, and put her head in his lap.
I was sold from that moment, but we couldn't adopt her just yet. I was leaving on a trip at the beginning of December, and then we were both going to see our families at the end of the month for the holiday. After my first trip, I felt like I needed to see her again. I couldn't stop thinking about her, she was just so sweet and her markings were so beautiful. If she was still there I decided to ask if there was anything we could do to "hold" her until we got back from the holiday. Well, she was still there -- and the café owner said that I could fill out the application then and if I was accepted and paid the fee, they'd hold her until I came back from the holiday!
So that's what we did. And our sweet Kila became a part of the family on December 31st, 2019. We thought about changing her name but Kila is just so pretty and unique. She's had an exciting life but now she's finally found a truly permanent home. She had some health issues at the beginning of her time with us but as of now we've got that effectively sorted out.
She's the sweetest and I feel like the stars aligned so that she could be with us. She had so many people ask up about her, but somehow we were the only ones to submit a serious application. Gentlest cat I've ever known -- she's never once scratched, bitten, growled, or hissed the whole time she's been with us. When she doesn't like something she'll take your hand and just gently place it in her mouth without biting down on it to signal she's done with whatever you're doing. She loves to be around us and to sleep as the little spoon at night. She's a big cat, a little chubby as of right now, but we're working to slim her down as we want her to be in good health for many years to come.
Anyway, that's our Kila!
She and her three sisters were trapped at a shipyard across the river from where we are living now in summer 2016. They were feral kittens. Kila was the last kitten to be trapped, and they quickly discovered that she had ingested antifreeze. She needed intensive care to survive but was luckily and miraculously nursed back to health. The original woman who cared for her named her Kataki, but when she was given over to the cat rescue that fostered her longterm, they changed her name to Kila to go with the other two sisters' names (Kiki and Kiwi). Her third sister, Fiona, found a home before reaching the rescue.
Kila lived with her foster mom and her sister Kiwi for almost 10 months. They were carefully socialized. Kiki was adopted out sometime along the way. During their time in foster care, she and Kiwi became bonded, and had to be adopted together. They were adopted by a family along with a third cat from the rescue, Cricket.
Here's Kila (front) and Kiwi (just behind her).
Kila lived with that family for 2.5 years. Sometime along the way, Kiwi escaped from the family's house. She somehow made it all the way back to her foster mother's home. But when she got there, she had reverted back to a feral state. She was unable to be re-adopted out and was placed in feral sanctuary, where she still lives now.
Meanwhile, Kila and Cricket were still living with the family that had adopted them. But in the fall of 2019, their foster mother saw a post on Facebook from the family offering both cats up free to a good home. The family had signed an agreement to return the cats to the rescue if they couldn't care for them anymore, so the foster mother took them both back.
At this point, the rescue was working with a cat café in our city, so Kila and Cricket were placed there. A few weeks later my boyfriend and I stopped by. We were planning to get a cat at the start of the new year. I grew up with cats but my boyfriend had never had one -- he hadn't had any pets at all, actually. He grew up extremely allergic, but had been taking allergy shots and was now effectively immune to cat allergens (the shots worked amazingly well!). So we thought, why not stop in and take a look?
Towards the end of our visit, I was sitting on the floor and Kila walked right up to me and plopped down next to me like she'd been doing it every day of her life. She was the only cat at the café who had really come up and approached us proactively. A few minutes later she got up and jumped on the couch, where my boyfriend was sitting, and put her head in his lap.
I was sold from that moment, but we couldn't adopt her just yet. I was leaving on a trip at the beginning of December, and then we were both going to see our families at the end of the month for the holiday. After my first trip, I felt like I needed to see her again. I couldn't stop thinking about her, she was just so sweet and her markings were so beautiful. If she was still there I decided to ask if there was anything we could do to "hold" her until we got back from the holiday. Well, she was still there -- and the café owner said that I could fill out the application then and if I was accepted and paid the fee, they'd hold her until I came back from the holiday!
So that's what we did. And our sweet Kila became a part of the family on December 31st, 2019. We thought about changing her name but Kila is just so pretty and unique. She's had an exciting life but now she's finally found a truly permanent home. She had some health issues at the beginning of her time with us but as of now we've got that effectively sorted out.
She's the sweetest and I feel like the stars aligned so that she could be with us. She had so many people ask up about her, but somehow we were the only ones to submit a serious application. Gentlest cat I've ever known -- she's never once scratched, bitten, growled, or hissed the whole time she's been with us. When she doesn't like something she'll take your hand and just gently place it in her mouth without biting down on it to signal she's done with whatever you're doing. She loves to be around us and to sleep as the little spoon at night. She's a big cat, a little chubby as of right now, but we're working to slim her down as we want her to be in good health for many years to come.
Anyway, that's our Kila!