Mary, Mandy & Tommy’s ‘Happily Ever After’ Tale

By Margaret Sinn-Pong 

Mary, Mandy and Tommy arrived at Evanston's Community Animal Rescue Effort after their beloved owner died. The three cats were petrified by the sudden change in their lives. We kept them together in one cage for comfort, and hoped to find an angel who could adopt the three siblings together. And we did. C.A.R.E. cat volunteer Margaret S. shares the rest of the story. She writes: 

My friend Terry and her husband's two Siamese cats had passed away very close together in time and a little unexpectedly a few years earlier. As Terry is an animal lover, I’d been telling her about my shelter experience with these three cats, Mary, Mandy and Tommy. At first I didn’t even know there were three cats in the cage as Mandy was always hiding behind Mary in their carrier. I told Terry it would be important that they stayed together, and we were worried that because they were older cats, it would be near impossible for them to be adopted. Terry had been thinking about adopting a particular older cat at that time, which later fell through, but her husband mentioned he would prefer to have two kittens at most. 

Then Terry’s husband went to Turkey and stayed in a dorm with cats which brought back all the wonderful memories of having such sweet animals around the house. She told him about these three cats, and insisted that he must be prepared to adopt all of them. He agreed. Terry and her husband talked with C.A.R.E. cat adoption counselors Chris and Rose, met the cats and fell in love. The trio were whisked off to their new home immediately.

But there were issues. Mandy, the shyest cat, suffered health issues due to hiding without food for about a week after the death of her previous owner. Besides weekly vet visits, blood-work and meds, Terry had to hand-feed Mandy several times a day with a feeding tube for more than a month to nurse her back to health. Mandy still needs her meds and fluids for her compromised kidneys.

Terry said she felt that she could not give up on Mandy, as she saw how much the C.A.R.E. volunteers cared about them. Mandy is no longer in hiding, with a beautiful new coat which she is proud to show off, she came right up to me for compliments, head rubs and petting. No longer the timid scaredy cat!

All three of the formerly shy cats have become quite affectionate and cuddly with their family members. Tommy is the most friendly, and will investigate even visitors he doesn’t know well. Tommy ‘owns’ the house and once caught a mouse which he proudly presented to his mistress.

It’s beautiful to see the three cats nudging and licking each other when they pass by one another. When it was cold, all of them were in the daughter’s room, right next to the radiator, or near a sun-lit window.

What a happy ending!