My partner and I really love animals and wanted an animal of our own. We are both dog people and have owned dogs our whole lives, and didn’t ever think that we would get a feline companion. However, we both have a lot of love to give and really longed for an animal to love and to cuddle. We actually seriously considered getting a dog at one point. Anyway, we both decided to start volunteering at HSHV a month or two ago because we wanted to volunteer together at an organization that we cared about and really just wanted to give back to the community. HSHV was the perfect choice.

Our first time at HSHV, a few weeks or so before we started volunteering, there was a beautiful white cat named Hydrangea that we saw, but we weren’t ready to be cat owners at that point. We just weren’t sure if we were cat people. However, after coming back to visit HSHV a few times we found ourselves falling for Hydrangea (whom we called Heidi), and one day we decided that we wanted to go and adopt Heidi. But when we got there, we found out that she was already adopted! I was happy for her but didn’t know if we would fall in love with another animal like that. We didn’t want to get an animal just to get one; we wanted to fall in love with them.

We wanted a fat, chunky, independent cat, and while looking at the cats, happened upon Neko. When we visited with him, he came right up to us and started loving up on us. We loved him immediately and took him home soon afterward! Now, Neko is loving his life in his small kingdom of his. He spends 70% of his day lying in front of the back windows that overlook our lake, staring at all the animals and critters outside. He is a huge softy and sweetheart and loves to climb into bed and cuddle up with us in bed at night and in the morning, and loves having his chubby cheeks scratched. He is still very active and loves to play with stringy toys like yarn and different types of string.

We aren’t ready to get another animal yet, but will definitely be adopting a puppy from The Love Train in a couple of years, so Neko will definitely have a canine sibling in the future!