“We’ve had cats and dogs most of our adult lives,” says Karen, “and Jim and I currently have three cats and one dog.

“Sadie came to Furry Friends in poor shape with four other kitties from a neglectful situation. Once Furry Friends gave her the medical attention she needed, she became one of the ‘Kitchen’ cats at the Halfway House. She remained there for several months and seemed to have learned her name, so when we took her home, we didn’t change it.

“Jim is the Furry Friends Halfway House’s ‘handyman and builder’ volunteer, and as he was building the new space in the Kitchen, he was amazed that Sadie would watch him as he ran his power tools. Our current cats run when they see a power tool, but Sadie just lay on the cat tree and watched. He initially thought she was younger because she’s so small, and he was amazed when he learned that she was a senior. Because of her tolerance to noise, Jim thought she’d make a great ‘shop cat.’

“As a shift lead at Furry Friends, I got to know Sadie really well while dishing out cat food and washing dishes in the Kitchen. Jim told me that we should foster Sadie (Furry Friends was looking for a permanent foster for her due to some medical conditions) and we did. But shortly after having her in our home, we knew she belonged with us. And so we adopted her. She doesn’t visit Jim in his shop all that often, but when she does, she can be found sleeping on his bench or on top of his chainsaw chaps.

“Volunteering at several animal rescues, I realized that the senior and medical needs dogs and cats are often overlooked by adopters. I thought that, moving forward, we should adopt cats or dogs who would have a harder time being adopted. Before Sadie, we rescued two dogs with medical needs at different times, both ironically with similar issues: severely underweight, walked on three legs due to an injury, skin allergies and buckshot throughout their bodies. Both dogs got the medical attention they needed and lived great lives (one is still with us today).

“Since we had success with them, Sadie seemed like a natural to bring into our home (a senior cat with both thyroid and kidney diseases who requires daily meds and frequent trips to the vet). Our goal is to give these overlooked animals a home for as long as we can so that their senior years are happy and spoiled ones!

“A cutely chatty kitty who’s fairly independent, Sadie gets along with our dog and two other cats. But as the ‘Alpha,’ she rules the roost by meowing loudly if any of them get too close to her. She likes her scratching pad and catnip toys, and although she cuddles next to me on my office chair and loves being petted on her head and under her chin, she doesn’t like being picked up. She’ll meow loudly and stiffen her legs until I let her down.

“Sadie has her own bed with a heating pad in my office where she sleeps most of the time, while at night, she sleeps in our bed next to me.”

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Furry Friends Fur-Ever Stories are compiled and written by Nomi Berger who is the bestselling author of seven novels, one work of non-fiction, two volumes of poetry, and hundreds of articles. She is a volunteer writer for Furry Friends in Vancouver, WA and also volunteers her writing skills to animal rescue groups in Canada and the USA.