Senior cat’s world ‘shattered’ when her owner died. Now the ‘queen’ needs loving home
A senior cat struggled after her owner died — and she still waits for a new home.
“When Sandy’s owner passed away, her world shattered,” a North Carolina animal shelter wrote Feb. 5 in a Facebook post. “She lost everything — her person, her home, her comfort, her safety. After a lifetime of love and stability, she found herself in a shelter, adrift in a sea of uncertainty.”
The Watauga Humane Society said the 15-year-old cat landed at its shelter in the fall. As the months passed, she started losing her appetite and struggled to keep her spirits up.
Then in early February, Sandy moved into a foster home. But after roughly 100 days of waiting, the attention-loving cat remains up for adoption.
“Her story is especially heartbreaking because she was raised in a loving home where she never went without,” Danielle Deschamps, communications coordinator for the shelter, told McClatchy News via email. “For a senior cat, being uprooted at this stage of life can be incredibly difficult.”
The humane society said cats typically stay at the shelter a maximum of three to four weeks. Sandy likely is being overlooked by potential adopters because she’s older.
“They don’t want to fall in love only to lose them in a few short years,” Deschamps wrote. “But what they don’t realize is that giving a senior pet a month, six months, or even a year can be just as rewarding as having one for a decade. They love harder, they’re often already trained, and they fit seamlessly into a home.”
Sandy has “early signs of kidney disease,” which the shelter said can be managed through her food. The cat, known for her “stunning golden locks” of fur, “has perfected the fine art of relaxation,” according to social media posts.
“Sandy is a queen in every sense — full of personality, strong-willed, and not afraid to make her needs known,” the animal organization wrote. “And what does she need most? Time. Love. A person who understands that her love language is simply being together, even if that just means sitting side by side in quiet companionship.”
The shelter is in the mountain town of Boone, a roughly 85-mile drive west from Winston-Salem. Details about the facility’s adoption process can be found at wataugahumane.org.
