Clawdia's Gotcha Day

Clawdia at the rescue center, looking very anxious and thin (6 pounds 1 ounce)

July 23, 2015 ~ posted on Facebook the day Clawdia moved in with me.

Miss Clawdia is settling in.  I stretched out on the bed, and she curled up with me for a good hour while we talked as she looked around and pushed her head against my hand.  After awhile, she rubbed her whole face against mine, since it was on her level on the pillow.  She was spooked when the air conditioner came on and would stare at the door whenever she heard noises from the hallway as people talked to each other and opened or closed doors.  She carefully jumped over from the bed to sit on the windowsill and look down at her new neighborhood, but mostly she snuggled beside me and struggled not to nap ... not yet, not yet, not yet!

At dusk, she sat in the living room window watching the light fade and looking down at ... something.  She seems very content, having eaten some of her food from her new blue dish.  Her litter box is in the corner of the bathroom (she watched me put it there), and her pet carrier is on the floor near the bed, wide open in case she would feel more secure there.  But I think she likes curling up next to me and will sleep on my bed tonight.  When she looked at me from the window ledge around dusk, I smiled at her.  That made her meow at me, and we carried on a conversation across the room.  It's been a momentous day, and now she's sleeping on the cushion of a chair pushed under the table, within sight of me on the computer.  I wonder if she'll follow me to bed tonight.

Clawdia six months later (February 2016), looking relaxed and healthier

When Clawdia reached 8 pounds, the vet said it's what she SHOULD weigh.  When I met her, the vet had estimated she was six years old, yet she weighed only 6 pounds — 75% of what she should have weighed.  Was she abused?  Starved?  I don't know.  But she doesn't look so scrawny and scared anymore.