My husband and I moved to Houghton so that my husband could attend Michigan Tech, and we brought our cat Salem with us. We had roommates before that had a small daschund dog, and we felt that Salem was feeling lonely being our only pet, so we decided to find him a friend. When we got to the shelter, we looked at a lot of cats, but none were really speaking to us, until my husband randomly decided to stick his hand at a cat sleeping in a somewhat hidden area of the shelter, and she seemed shy but started purring and rolling around. Something about this kitty spoke to him and we almost immediately decided she would be our new kitty.
The shelter volunteer/employee told us that her name was Jasmine, but that she did not come with the name and the shelter gave her the name, so we felt fine changing it to “Nara” as a little tribute to where she came from (Nara Nature Trails). Nara was extremely nervous, shy, and skiddish at first, and we started to wonder if she would be able to blend with us well, but after about a week she started to come around, and after a month she was completely transitioned into a full-time lap cat. We love how cuddly she is, and she is the perfect addition to our home and personalities. Salem really wants to be her friend and even cuddles and licks her, but she is still not certain about him and will sometimes hiss or even bat at him, but we know that in time they will be good friends.
We love Miss Nara and feel that she was meant for us, and it was the great staff and volunteers at CCHS that helped us discover and choose her. The staff was extremely helpful and never seemed to say “no”, no matter how many cats we asked to see and didn’t bat an eye at how many hours we stayed at the shelter trying to choose our kitty.
Salem was the son of a stray that showed up at my parents home, so Nara is our first adopted cat and we are completely sold on the concept, every cat from now on will be adopted and that is partly because of our experience here!