She arrived at our home on January 4 and spent most of the first two days in the back of the closet, hissing and spitting at whoever tried to see or touch her. J was the first to see that Kirin might improve: sitting alone at the computer in the office the first week, she saw her emerge and jump into J's lap, although as soon as J tried to pet her, she hissed and jumped down. For the next six months she seemed to change daily, slowly warming to us, but also still very defensive, none more so than when we opened the office door to reveal the rest of the house and our other cat. She would try to make a break for outside, and was successful a couple of times, but after we chased her around the back yard she seemed quite happy to return to the house where she was being fed. And well fed, as she put on a couple of ounces in our care, appreciating the canned food that we have to give our older cat. In fact, the first time J was actually able to pick her up was when the bowl of canned food was being presented to her--she would put up with most anything (for a few seconds) if she was about to get canned food.

We changed her name sometime in the summer, choosing Storm not just for its hurricane connotation but also for her particular coloration, which somewhat matched the X-Men character of that name. When we called her for a treat or for dinner, it inevitably became Stormy. Like her name, she was often mercurial, sitting in the lap for a snuggle in the morning which could quickly change to a deep rumble of warning before erupting into a hailstrom of hissing.

By September she became adoptable, in our opinion, as she had finally gotten over most of her defensiveness. What was left was mainly insecurity, that manifested itself by being very anxious around our other cat and often unsure about any petting. She was quite social, and had adopted our living room couch as her bed, so that anyone who sat there became game for a possible lap bed. PetConnect had her featured in a newspaper article in the local Potomac, MD weekly, but no one seemed to want her. In December, after she had her yearly Vet visit, we took her to a PetConnect event and a couple of people admired her, but having to keep her in the cage likely didn't help make her very attractive.

When we returned from our trip after the new year, we were prepared to adopt her ourselves. She had been with us, after all, for a year. But there were two messages for us about people who were interested in adopting her. One couple never returned our return call, but the other did. They had just moved into a new condo in DC, had no pet and no children living with them, and were interested in adopting a Katrina rescuee. They visited Storm in our home on Saturday and she immediately jumped into the man's lap as soon as he sat on the couch, which we learned sealed the deal. They didn't give it away before they left, but we received a call from them the next day to say they were willing to adopt her. Since J and I were going to be out of town this next week, we ended up taking her over to their new place tonight. In the car she made some pitiful mews, but that was likely because she was afraid that she was going to the Vet again. In their home, she immediately began her explorations, coming back to J. time and time again to reassure herself that it was okay. When we left 30 minutes later, she was trying to decide if their couch was going to make a good bed.

We'll be getting another foster cat in a couple of weeks, but it makes us feel good (if a little bit sad to see her go) to have found Storm a new home, one we think is actually preferable to our own, since she won't have to share it with another cat (or even the past smell of one) and will have two people all to herself to dote on her.

UPDATE: The new owners emailed us to say that Storm cried most of the first night, but has now settled down and adopted the new woman as her morning snuggle partner and discovered that their window ledge also has wonderful kitty TV (i.e., bird viewing). It sounds like she's made herself a perfect new home.