YOLANNA LU

Senior

"I work at Reed Animal Hospital. One day, a client wanted to euthanize their cat because it was extremely overweight and immobile. But after our veterinarians discovered that the cat didn't need to be euthanized, the owners didn't want to keep the cat anymore. So we kept the cat at our hospital for a while. But obviously, it couldn't stay there because it needed more exercise. If it stayed in our hospital, it would just be in a kennel all day. So I decided to adopt her. 

That was a little over a month ago. When I first got her, she hid under my bed for multiple days on end, without even coming out to drink water or eat food, or even go to the litter box. I literally had to sleep on the floor with her for hours, just to help her acclimate better to our home.

She has definitely gotten way more comfortable. But I'm trying to bring her to a healthier weight, as well as alleviate some trauma because she never stops shaking. I don't know what happened with her previous owners, but I really don't think they treated her well, so I'm glad to have her now. 

We re-named her to Pusheen because of how round she is. She is the sweetest cat ever. She loves head rubs and always tries to cuddle with me in bed. I love her very much.

I've never had a cat before, or even a pet, because my parents weren't fans of having animals in the house. But after much bribery and begging, they ultimately came to the conclusion that I was ready to own a pet myself because I've been taking care of pets for the longest time at the hospital. 

I've worked with so many cats but I have never met a single one that is as affectionate as her. So whenever I'm doing work on my bed, she always puts her paws up and meows really loudly until I look at her. She can't jump on my bed because she's super fat and she can't jump higher than a few inches. So she would just constantly meow until I carried her up and put her on my bed to cuddle next to me.

Even though it's just one animal that I'm making an impact on, I honestly feel very grateful that I have this opportunity to help care for her. I’m making her exercise and walk up my stairs five times a week. There have been a lot of other instances with animals that don't get treated well by their owners. These animals are being neglected, or they aren't cared for as well as they should be. Be more conscious of how you treat your pets because they also have feelings. They need to be cared for and loved, just like humans do."