Snowboots came in as an extremely shy stray that trusted no humans. When I first some him in the adoptable cat room, I was warned he would not be the warm and cuddly feline like Boo or Lucy.I made my way to his bottom-level corner cage and saw this white cat crouched behind his litter box, his eyes carefully watching me. I slowly opened the cage door and started talking to him as he immediately tried to crouch even further down, and further into the corner.
I sat there for about ten minutes, where we could just watch each other. I didn't reach in, he was obviously not going to welcome my hand. Uncomfortable with people, being aggressively friendly wasn't going to work with Snowboots.
The next week I came in and saw Snowboots again in his cage, but no longer hiding in the corner. He probably witnessed the other cats getting taken out of their cages by these mysteriously gentle humans and coming back unscathed and calm. Maybe he felt it was time to try venturing out, because he let me open his door and pick him up. He was tense as I carried him to the socializing room and he was tense when I put him next to the room's largest cat scratcher.
It only took another ten minutes for Snowboots to approve of his new surroundings and permit me to scratch behind his ears. It didn't take much longer for him to be comfortable with getting a complete kitty body massage. Not much more time passed until he shoved himself in my lap and couldn't get close enough to me to satisfy his need for human attention.
Snowboots has turned out to be the ultimate cat lap that I thought he was the exact opposite of. He's proven everyone wrong with his new-found extreme, snuggly attitude. He will be the most giving and grateful adopted cat that has ever been adopted. Go to the Napa County Animal Shelter to check him out!
