A Sweet Moment - Tenderness and Pesistence

Slightly over six months ago, my son heard an animal in distress while he was outside playing with friends. My boy has the most tender heart and was concerned that the cries he heard meant an animal was in distress. Our adventure that night led us to the sweetest yet shyest cat: our beautiful Cinder Ella. When we brought Cinder home, she was so starved that she was bloated. Because of a birth defect, our sweet girl wasn't able to catch mice or birds for food. All she had been eating was grass. When we first brought her into our home, she spent most of her time hiding in my son's room. Now, she spends an equal amount of time interacting with the family and being in my son's room when she needs a break. She has finally started jumping on our chairs to get "lovings" like our other cats do. Our big but gentle cat, Tiger Lily, kept opening my son's door to "spring" Cinder so they could play. Now, Cinder is initiating the playtime with Tiger. Just this week, Cinder played with a toy for the first time ever. What a joy to see her being carefree and having such a blast playing with the mouse toy. It took time, patience, and persistence to show Cinder the love she needed to feel comfortable being a member of our motley crew (my father has dementia, my son has autism, we have two other female cats and all three of them are nearing two years of age, and a nine year old, small, yappy dog). That patience, that effort, that investment of time, that persistence, and that love we showed her has paid off. Not only does she seem to be comfortable living here with us but we are blessed by having her here. All of our sweet furry babies are a blessing and bring such joy to our family.