Hugs - Stevie

Read a story in the Chron recently about how pets are getting people names these days. Front page, slow news day, but the evidence is here at Maddie’s.

I go to visit Stevie, who’s across the hall from Jenny, and we could be a little boomer family in Peoria in 1965.

A pair of rather loud large women enter the hallway and I pause for a moment to see if they need help. "We’ll take them all," one says with a hardy laugh. "Wrap up all of them to go, please."

That’s a pretty common sentiment here. I feel that way to some extent – it’s such a wide world of kitties, and they’re all both so precious and unique. But over time, I’ve seen so many of the get adopted that I no longer feel like I have to have every one. I just want them all in mellow loving homes.

These women are just looking around. Back to Stevie. He’s a lanky black and white fellow with long white whiskers and a cute tilted ear sort of expression. His card says he’s shy, but he’s clearly moving past that.

I say hello to him and reach down to let him sniff my hand, as I normally do upon meeting a new cat. But this guy, as I lean down, reaches both paws up to my shoulders, almost launching off the floor in a kitty hug.

He’s adorable. I can barely get seated to offer a lap and he’s on it, purring noisily and flailing his paws around. I pat my shoulders and he reaches up, hugging, head butting and purring.

Sweet Stevie. He needs a good home just like all the kitties here. Hope he finds himself some people who like hugs.