Mark’s a tiny fellow determined to work his way up in the world. The 12-week-old, exceptionally-small-for-his-age kitten, was born outside an apartment complex. Mark should have been afraid of people. He wasn’t. The underfed fellow toddled after people as they walked through the parking lot, risking being squashed by feet or tires.

​This kitten wasn’t begging for food, although he needed some. Mark wanted to be touched, held, petted. No one knew how Mark knew about those house cat things. Maybe he’d peeked in windows. Maybe Mark is simply a rare little fellow with a huge heart.

​So, when Friends of the Shelter members were trapping cats, to spay/neuter and return them, they scooped up Mark. He wouldn’t survive outdoors, and he didn’t belong there.

The slightly modified saying, “Beauty is only fur deep,” doesn’t apply to Marble.  Her spirit and disposition are just as gorgeous as her colorful outside.  That outside is spectacular.  The spayed, tortoiseshell cat wears a coat that should win Mother Nature an art award.  It’s a creative, perfect blend of golds and auburns and sienna browns and ebony.

Marble’s coat is something to admire on long winter days, when the colors outside have vanished.  And Marble would be content to lie on a lap and purr for as long as her person wanted to study her coat.

No one’s bothered to look at her coat before.  Of course, Marble doesn’t want to be admired.  This sweet, forever-small cat simply longs to love and be loved.

Consistently, people who stroll through the shelter say, “I can’t believe that pet ended up here!”  People meeting shelter pets realize that even perfection doesn’t offer protection.  Pets who’ve never made any mistakes, who are house trained, leash trained and, most importantly, love unconditionally, heart and soul, are thrown away.

Nemy, an 18-month-old, spayed, long-haired German Shepherd, is this week’s example of that sort of injustice.  In fact, because Nemy seems so ideal, the shelter staff kept looking for some reason someone would part with her.  After several weeks with her, they can’t find any flaw in Nemy.

She simply experienced the wrong place, wrong time, wrong person.  Nemy deserves better.  Nemy deserves someone who’ll be as good to her as she is to him.

If Sally looks startled, she has lots of reasons.  The tiny tuxedo is only eight weeks old, yet every element of her world has changed at least four times.  Sally’s original world, one she shared with her brother, Rico, must have revolved around a capable, caring mama cat.  People must have been there, too, since these kittens adore people.

Sally can’t explain how that happy world disappeared, but world number two was horrifying.  Sally and Rico were alone, outdoors, huddled together, terrified, starving, fading fast.  People passed and the kittens looked at them hopefully.  No one responded.  Then hands scooped up Sally and Rico.

They were put into a world that moved, a car, a car that finally arrived at world number three, the shelter.

Puppies are hard to resist. Sandy, a gorgeous, copper, brown, and white Australian Shepherd, would have been even more irresistible than most. So, even though he was older, the person took the ball of fluff home. That was three years ago. Now, Sandy is at her beautiful, energetic, hopeful peak. The person she loves is not.

Sandy’s owner can no longer care for her. It’s not that Sandy has made any mistakes. It’s simply that Sandy is young. She needs a home for another decade. She needs a family as active as a healthy, playful, intellectually vibrant Aussie.

Sandy will be a blessing to that appropriate family. She has so much to give and already has the greatest skill – Sandy knows how to love.