Velvet doesn't have a cool name like the rest of our cats because we foolishly thought she might be accustomed to her shelter name when we got her. I think she knows it now, but we missed our chance to change it when we brought her home a couple of years ago.
She's our "middle cat" downstairs – the buffer between young Xena and elderly Velcro. Our vet thinks she's about 8 or 9 years old and she's obviously had a hard life, but she seems to be enjoying living with us.
When we adopted her, we were told that she had belonged to a family that decided they didn't want a cat anymore once they got a dog. So they just stopped letting her into their house and she wandered the neighborhood forlornly, scavenging food wherever she could and picking up a host of parasites and scars. Finally a sympathetic neighbor took her to the shelter, where she remained for more than seven months before we came along.
Now she lives a life of leisure and pampering like the rest of our cats. She and Xena have a blast chasing each other all over the house and although they never cuddle, I've seen them nuzzle from time to time.
When Velvet first came home with us, she was not a fan of being picked up or held for any length of time, but she's gotten more amenable to all kinds of attention since then. Now she'll regularly sit on my lap or follow me around asking for attention.
The negative attention she gets comes from her dogged attempts to steal Velcro's canned food. I have to guard Velcro whenever she's eating lest Velvet sneak in and push her aside. Given Velvet's background, I don't blame her for wanting to make sure she gets whatever food she can, but it's a little annoying to have to be the cat food police twice a day.
She only has one nickname, "Velveeta," but we use her actual name most of the time. It's already confusing enough to have two cats whose names begin with "Vel-".
Velvet is a sweet girl and I'm so glad we're able to give her life's story a happily ever after.
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