After my husband and I had to say goodbye to our 18-year-old calico girl Rosie in July 2022, we felt bereft and adrift for the rest of that summer. At one point we’d been living with a rabbit and two cats, so without any critters in it at all, the house felt very, very empty with just us two human people rambling around in it. But then just before Halloween that year, my husband announced, seemingly out of nowhere, “do you want to go look for a new kitty today?” So we drove to One Tail at a Time’s cat adoption shop Tortie & Co.

As soon as we walked in, a bold little tabby girl scrambled right over to me, rubbing my ankles, and then climbed into my lap when I sat down to pet her in earnest. I looked up at my husband and, without missing a beat, he said, “I’ll start filling out the paperwork.”

Turns out that that sweet gal Marble came as a bonded pair with her sister Quartz, who was quietly napping elsewhere while Marble turned on the charm. Once we made her acquaintance as well (and decided to rechristen her as Smoky Quartz, now Smoky for short), we knew that we’d just expanded our family by two new members.

Thank you for rescuing, Allison Felus.