AKA: Ody
Likes: carrying toys around the house while yowling loudly, licking Pan's head, his laser pointer toy. Occupation: accountant

Isn't he adorable? I'm sure I will be adding more to Ody's page as we get to know each other better. At this point (June '05) he's been with us for only 7 weeks, so we're still learning about one another. Odysseus is named for one of two characters in "The Odyssey" to survive Hades, fitting for a cat who survived over 3 months living at the humane society. We weren't consciously looking for a new cat, but sometimes life intervenes. I was donating some artwork to the Humane Society of Silicon Valley and told myself that I was not going to look at the cats available for adoption. What did I do? I walked into the cat building and made the acquaintance of "Cool Cat", a 9-year-old gray and white fur boy who had been brought to the shelter because his people were moving. I wanted to adopt him then and told myself I couldn't deal with the work involved in introducing a new cat to our existing cat family.

I went through an emotional roller-coaster over the question of whether or not to adopt him, and basically wimped out, convincing myself it would be too difficult to adopt another cat (even though my husband was amenable to the idea). Over two months after I initially saw Cool Cat, his photo appeared in the paper under adoptable animals at the shelter. Kitten season was soon to arrive and the shelter was obviously trying to find homes for some of the older cats there who normally don't have as much of a chance at adoption as kittens do. I saw Cool Cat's photo in the paper, showed my husband the photo, and a couple of days later Cool Cat, soon to be Odysseus, came home with us .

This little guy is just the sweetest thing, and the great thing is he gets along well with the other cats! We think he's good for Artemis, who lost her brother last year and who sometimes gets tired of the frenetic energy of Pan and Calypso. Ody's calmer and older, but still loves to play and is lots of fun. We are so happy to be able to add him to our family! To anyone reading who may be considering adopting an older cat, I'd say with conscientious planning and taking care to give lots of attention to any animals you may already be living with, go for it!