We first new we wanted a pet after we cat sat for one of my wife’s friends for 2 weeks. We fell
in love with their cat and enjoyed having a companion around the apartment. My wife really wanted a
dog, but with our work schedule, I knew it wouldn’t be feasible. I grew up with cats; however, my wife,
Sydney, wasn’t a huge fan until we cat sat for her friend. We started looking to adopt a cat and
searched for some shelters online around us. We went to one shelter before AARF and weren’t in love
with the shelter or any of the cats. That same day, we visited AARF and were blown away by the facility
and the care the cats received. We knew we wanted a male cat that was between 1-2 years old. Frank
quickly stood out to us at our visit for being so friendly and his extremely loud purr. We left AARF after
filling out all the adoption paperwork and scheduling our home visit for the same week. The day of the
home visit when we were approved, I went to pick up our new cat!
Frank warmed up to us very quickly. He did not want to be in his solo bedroom for much longer
than a day or two. He is one of the most affectionate cats I have ever owned. Sydney and I absolutely
love Frank. He greets us at the door much like a dog whenever we come home. He loves strangers and
is not afraid to be out and about with visitors. He wasn’t the most playful cat when we first got him, but
he loved being a lap cat. He will lay with us all night while we watch movies, TV, or read. After a couple
of months of having Frank, we felt like Frank was becoming a bit lazy and lonely. I am a pilot and on the
road a lot, and Sydney is a resident at Emory and has long shifts. While we were home every night with
him, we felt like he could use a friend when I was on the road. We knew for our second cat the only
place we could look was AARF!
I started monitoring AARF’s post online looking for our next cat. For our second cat we knew we
wanted a cat younger and more playful cat than Frank. We also wanted a cat that would be ok not
being the “alpha” as Frank can be a bit of bully. Not long after I started following AARF on Facebook, I
saw Scout get brought in. My wife was on a work trip that weekend, but I went in and met him and fell
in love with him. He was shyer than Frank at the shelter, but he was a beautiful cat and was very
playful. After discussing with Sydney, we agreed to foster Scout for a month to make sure Frank would
accept Scout and that they would get along.
When we brought Scout home, he only lasted about 3 days in our guest bedroom before he was
constantly begging us to let him out to be in the main space with Frank. It took Frank and Scout just
over a week to really accept each other, and by week 2, they were well on their way to becoming best
friends. After our 30-day foster, we knew we couldn’t separate them and agreed to adopt Scout to be
our second cat. Once we decided to adopt him, we started looking for other names and settled on
Henry. Henry is much more playful than Frank, and we have so much fun playing with him. Although
more playful than Frank, he wasn’t as warm and cuddly and was scared of strangers when we first got
him. He liked to be around us, but would run from us if we tried to pet him. I spent a lot of time
positively reinforcing Henry to accept our love and pets, and over the past few months he has really
started to warm up and become more friendly and loving. He greets me most mornings and now flops
down at my feet looking for a belly rub before I leave for work.
Henry and Frank love each other and hardly leave each other’s side now. Henry has helped
Frank become more playful and we hear them running through the house late at night. We often catch
them sleeping next to each other in the mornings. They are best friends and we are so glad to have
found them. They bring us so much joy and happiness.
