I am a dog person. Always have been. Yet, I was drawn to the cat adopption room in PetSmart in the summer of '05.
It was there I met am orange tom named Char. He had been a stray, rescued from a burning house 5 months earlier. He was still covered in bare scars, his ears half burned off, some of the scars still open wounds. The paper on his cage told his story, and how he was ready for a new home, but no one wanted to adopt Char because he wasn't beautiful. As I read, the tears flowed down my cheeks, and then I felt a raspy tongue upon my fingers. Char was licking me. I was a goner...Char came home with me that day.
Renamed Charlie, he blossomed. No longer 'ugly', his coat came in thick and long, hiding most of his scars. He loves my dogs, wrestles and plays with them, and acts more like a dog than a cat. He follows me everywhere and comes when called. He purrs me to sleep at night. I have never regreted giving Charlie a home, and I truly believe he is grateful...after all, he lived through hell in that burning house. He knows he has come home.
Evansville, IN
