Your support helped us surpass our all-time record, with a whopping 463 adoptions in 2023, and ensured we could stay focused on supporting the cats who needed us most.
While we shared many of our team’s favorite adoptions with you from the year, we have one more to share as we reflect on all you helped us accomplish and the work we look forward to doing in 2024.
This is Adeline’s story of Crouton:
A staff member assesses Crouton in our Studios. Photo by David Yeung.
Crouton was one of the first “Feral or Fearful” cats we brought in to assess as part of our collaborative project with Oakland Animal Services. In this program, we identify the best path forward for cats who present mixed signals in a shelter cage by assessing them in a lower stress environment here at Cat Town.
For her first several weeks in our care, Crouton was incredibly wary. She was hissy and growly, and had no interest in treats. I’d still offer her a lick of Churu when I saw her, and she’d eat a little, but would quickly turn her head away to show she was done interacting.
Crouton spent her first few weeks with us feeling wary.
The other cats who’d come in to be assessed at the same time were getting more social, but Crouton really didn’t seem to be making any progress. I kept trying to win her over, though — maybe because she looks so much like my own cat. She had the same gray and white markings, and the same little heart nose.
I just kept working with her, and one day while I was scooping her litter box, she approached me to sniff my hand. I stayed very still so I wouldn’t startle her, because she’d never come up to anyone like that before. She kept sniffing me, so I reached out to pet her under the chin a little. She took one step away, but came forward again and let me keep scratching her. Then, she started purring!
The whole time, Crouton’s entire body was trembling. She clearly wanted to be touched, but was so scared. Even though she could have left at any time, she stayed near me and purred as I continued to pet her. I was moved to tears by her bravery that day — she was so scared, but she knew she was loved and cared for.
After building up her confidence, Crouton began rolling over for pets.
The next day when I visited her, she started shaking again while she worked up her courage, but rolled over for pets. I pet her until she stopped trembling, and after that second day of bravery, she never went back to being scared. She let me pet her all the time, and other people started petting her while she flopped for affection, happy to be near us. It was such a big shift!
Helping Crouton work past her fear was the first real breakthrough I had with a cat here, and it felt so special, because she became so sweet!
When Crouton got adopted, her person let us know in a matter of days that although she was still quite shy, she’d “very much come out of her shell.” Now, she has a cat friend and a loving family to give her all the tummy rubs she could ever want.
Thank you for donating to Cat Town to make stories like Crouton’s come true. We can’t wait to help more cats like her in the coming year with your support!
Crouton continued blossoming in our care, and made enough progress to play out in the open and quickly get adopted. Photo by David Yeung.
Cover photo by David Yeung.