We brought her home from our county's animal shelter on Saturday. Shelter staff had named her Oreo, but we knew we wanted to rename her. For one thing, it seems silly to name such a skinny cat after a type of junk food. A cat-loving colleague suggested that we name her Laila, which means night in Arabic. We decided that she was indeed a Laila, and the name stuck.
I hadn't visited an animal shelter in many years, and Scott had never visited one at all. Even though we knew in general terms what kind of cat we wanted (friendly, older, short-haired), there were still many to choose from. It was quite overwhelming. One of the staff told me they had even more cats elsewhere in the building who were not being displayed for prospective pet adopters.
In spite of a large selection, we narrowed our choices down to two, Laila and one other kitty. We met with each separately in a sort of meet-and-greet room. The other kitty was primarily interested in exploring the room, but Laila came right over to be petted.
She was silent on the car ride home. I had her in her carrier on my lap, and she just kept turning around and looking out all the different mesh windows. When we got her home and I opened the carrier, I expected her to run under a piece of furniture and hide. But she was interested in exploring right away.
The shelter staff think Laila is 10 years old. She's had a rough life, at least in parts. She was found and brought in as a stray with a puncture wound that suggested she had been bitten. Because of the probable animal bite, she had to go into quarantine at a cat foster home for 4 months. She's very skinny and has a slightly wobbly walk.
She warmed up to us very quickly. Generally speaking, when we're home and she isn't eating, she wants to be where we are. Her preference is that we drop everything and pet her, but barring that, she's happy to hang out and watch us. She wasn't eating much when we first brought her home, but is starting to eat more. She also seemed to have trouble jumping very high, but she seems to improving and/or becoming more confident. After I cruelly pushed the chairs under our kitchen table--to deprive her of a midway point to jumping on said table--I watched her defiantly jump to the table from the floor.
Laila has brought a lot of joy to our home, and we hope we can give her good golden years.
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