In july of 2012, i had just moved to an apartment in what turned out...

In july of 2012, i had just moved to an apartment in what turned out, unbeknownst to me, to be a very bad set of buildings. i had left my two previous rescue cats (another story) with my previous ex, as he had bonded with them too much for me to separate them. i didn't want another cat, and had been cat-free for just over a year. i was starting to enjoy a fur-free life where i could go away on weekends and not feel guilty.

then one afternoon, i came home from buying groceries to find the gentleman in gray standing on my deck. it was a rainy week, and he was so scrawny for such a big cat that i felt guilty, de-canned some tuna, and put it on the deck. for two days i resisted, and then the day of a big storm, i let him in. i had a big mouse problem anyway. 

when i took him to the vet 2 days later, she found a golf-ball sized abscess behind his ear, bad worms, and he was so starved he had a hard time not throwing everything up. turned out he had been abandoned inside another apartment for over a week without food, water or litter. so the vet fixed him up (in all ways) and he came home to recuperate. i named him folio because it was the first word from my thesaurus he responded to.

2 months later, the little female showed up in a crawlspace under my apartment, and waltzed in to make herself at home. she pretty much ruled the roost from the moment she arrived, and her name is willow. i have no idea why. she plays ball soccer with me (she starts the game every time), and she's an excellent goalkeeper.

folio is as shy as willow is outgoing, and the two of them have not only covered my apartment with fur and completely eradicated my mouse problem, but they have made it very clear they are not going anywhere. and that's ok with me