Share a photo of your pet and tell us one thing that makes them uniquely them.

Meet Little Miss.

This is the most basic answer, but it matters to me. She is the first creature I ever owned. I say creature because she’s both my pet AND Emotional Support Animal.

I lived in a home where I grew up with a niece who owned 3 dogs, 4 cats, and 2 turtles throughout her life, and a sister who owned 1 cat and inherited a dog and turtle from our niece. I had no say or control over how each animal was treated. Even when I tried to give my input I was told I was wrong. So, I was very disconnected from the animals my family had, to the point of absolute disassociation.

So when I got my first ever cat, I disassociated from her too because I didn’t believe she was mine. It was more of a cat that was being pushed onto me because the owner didn’t want her, due to how much trouble she was causing them. Like, seriously.

I just traveled from New York to Oregon in an escape from my abusive family dynamic. I have always been the one to care for everyone else. I didn’t want anything to do with caring for another living creature. Yet, the people who allowed me to sleep in their trailer as I got my shit together was pushing a cat onto me because the cat was a hassle.

Little Miss was bullied by her own children, bullied by the elderly male cat. Basically Little Miss was isolated in her own home. Granted she too came from an abusive and homeless background before coming to the trailer. She had lived and gave birth to her 3 kittens in the trailer a year before I showed up.

It took months before I slowed accepted responsibility for Little Miss. I still didn’t associate her as mine. I was still in the mindset of these people were just dumping their problems onto to me. Eventually I put my foot down and accepted this cat as mine because I wanted to give her something I always wanted. To be wanted and loved unconditionally and without judgement.

So Little Miss went from an anxiety driven cat that was super skinny and looked sick most of the time, to a fat happy cat. She does still have the habit of needing me to go with her to her food bowl with her so she can eat. A trauma induced behavior that I can’t blame her for, due to her background. Especially when during our time in the trailer I made it a point to make sure she ate away from the other cats. Since those cats didn’t allow her to eat. That trailer was a free for all.