Adopting a Junkyard Cat

**Edit- here is a short video we made about adopting Emmylou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u41wfwi8m4**

It is no secret to those of you who know us even just a little bit that we are animal lovers, and our family has grown by three cats in the past 10 months. I'd like to take this post to highlight our cat Emmy, who was adopted through a private rescuer when Emmy was living in an outdoor colony of cats in a junkyard. This junkyard is closing down at the end of this year, and there are still 30 cats who are living there that need to find forever homes before the junkyard is shut down. It is my hope that you might read about our experience with Emmy and feel compelled to help the rest of her colony in whatever way you can. (Visit this link for more information.)

We adopted Emmylou in May of this year. We needed a companion cat for our other cat Oscar, and when we heard Emmy's story we just knew she should come and be with us. A junkyard is a rough place for a cat to live, and unfortunately Emmy had to have an eye removed because of the conditions there. Today she is perfectly healthy and doesn't seem to even notice her missing eye. Knowing how much she needed a loving home, we were just happy to take her in and give her a comfortable life, regardless of if she warmed up to us or not. 

The fact that she had been living without human love and companionship for quite a few years meant that she was very shy and skittish, and did not like human attention. 

When Emmy first came to our home, she was very nervous, and we didn't get to see much of her. We tried putting her in my lap, but she just wasn't having it- her claws were out, and she jumped right back down and ran away. At one point she ran into the kitchen trying to get away from us, almost manically, and jumped onto the counter when she realized there was nowhere else to go. We didn't really get to touch her in the first day or two; she stayed hidden behind the couch unless we were sleeping or out of the apartment. We were able to pet her while she was hiding behind the couch, and while this was initially met with hissing and low growls, after a day or two of lots of patience she did start to hesitantly accept a few pats, and even leaned in to our hands, enjoying the attention. We couldn't do this for more than 30 seconds or so, or we'd get swatted and growled at, but just that little bit of progress felt so wonderful! Since this was the only way we could give her attention in those first few days, we made sure to spend that time with her each day to build up her trust.

Hiding behind the couch.

Oscar was very curious about Emmy, and if he couldn't get next to her, he was always laying somewhere near her hiding spot. Anytime she saw him, she growled, and if he got too close she swatted at him, but he was relentless in trying to become her friend, and we think that he played an integral role in her opening up being part of our family.

Six days after Emmy joined our family, I came home from work to find her sitting on the couch. She did run off and hide as soon as we made eye contact, but that was the very first time I had seen her at all outside of any of her hiding spots. Another baby step!

After two weeks she began leaving her hiding place while we were home, but she was always slinking around, and if we looked at her too long, or made a sudden movement, she'd bolt back to behind the couch.

Four weeks in was when she really started to open up to Oscar, and in turn that meant that she was in the open around us a lot more. I remember one night the two of them playfully wrestled for at least 5 minutes while I was in the same room. It was so wonderful to see that progress.

Between 4-6 weeks with us, she was out and around us a lot more, playing with Oscar, and finally playing with toys, shoelaces, and whatever she could find. Her personality really started showing through at that point. We still needed to be careful to not full-on approach her or make fast or sudden movements, but she was definitely comfortable in her environment.

#Emmythecat being a cat, and #Oscarthecat being ... his version of a cat. Emmy's become so comfortable with us in the last two weeks particularly. Can't even tell she came from years of living on her own! #oneeyedwonder #catsofinstagram #adoptdontshop #smartgirlsadopt

A video posted by @rkozeluh on Jun 30, 2015 at 7:25am PDT

Just over two months in, I was able to pick her up and set her in my lap one night. She was incredibly hesitant and her body was pretty stiff, but she stayed there and let me pet her for a minute or so. It just made me so happy to have watched that transformation from being so skittish, incredibly independent and un-trusting, to trusting me enough to be placed in my lap and pet. It was definitely worth the time and effort while she was getting used to us.

Recently we found a kitten, Toni, and brought her into our little cat family. Emmy went backwards for a bit - she hissed and growled a lot at Toni, and she wouldn't even let me near her for two full days. But after that, she actually started to show herself around our home even more than we'd gotten used to when it was just her and Oscar. She was very curious about Toni and made a point to always be in the same room as her, which was typically the same room as us. She and Toni became friends after only two weeks, and now our apartment has an entirely different feel - all three cats are in the same room as us almost all the time. Emmy has even begun sleeping at the foot of our bed at night, and I woke up the other night to find her laying completely across my legs, very contentedly sleeping! 

Emmy has been full of surprises, and while she still has her quirks, and doesn't always want to be paid attention to, she has grown by leaps and bounds in the past six months. She is very spunky and full of personality. One of my favorite things about her is her love of shoes. If we leave shoes out, she'll find them and roll on them, play with them, lick them, sleep on them, or stick her whole face in them. And the smellier the better - my running shoes seem to be her favorite!

It feels so good to see how all of her baby steps have led Emmy to become a comfortable, relaxed cat in her forever home. She is still very shy, and we still need to be gentle and patient with her when we are offering her attention, but that is just part of who she is, and we are happy to have given her an environment where she can grow at her own pace.

Perhaps not every cat who comes from a junkyard or other outdoor community will open up even to the point that Emmy has, but that should not be the purpose of adopting these cats. We've learned that you need to be willing to give them all the time they need, providing for their needs and giving them the best life possible, even if you feel like you're getting minimal appreciation in return. The rest of Emmy's life will likely be a continual growing process, and we are looking forward to the surprises she continues to bring to our family. It has been a lot of fun to watch her grow, and we know that there are plenty of other cats that are coming from similar situations who need to find their forever home with a patient, accepting family. We are hopeful that Emmy's story can lead to more of these cats to be adopted!

You can learn more about the cats at the junkyard in the following video, and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about how you can help. To see pictures and general descriptions of all the cats, visit this photo album.

Please also stay tuned for a video about Emmy and the journey she's been on since joining our family. Adopting these cats is not necessarily like adopting a cat that is already used to human attention, but it is an incredibly rewarding experience!

6 Weeks Pregnant

This post could also easily be titled "12 Hours of Sleep Isn't Enough!" or "Why Doesn't My Favorite Food Sound Appetizing Anymore?" or simply "My Hormones Are Attacking Me!!!"

You guys.

Jeremy and I found out fairly early- when we were 3.5 weeks pregnant. (Which made baby only 1.5 weeks old, according to the way you're supposed to measure pregnancy.) I felt so completely normal when I took that pregnancy test that even though I was hopeful, I was incredibly surprised by those two telltale lines that meant "positive." The only reason I bothered to take the test at all was because of one very minor change that I had essentially already passed off as me reading in to things too much (and even if I was, I guess I actually wasn't. P.S, breasts take no time at all to start getting ready for baby).

So what I mean by all that is that I was pregnant, and I didn't feel pregnant. And I was naively hopeful that it meant I would continue to not feel pregnant.

So I kept right on with taking my cod liver oil/butter blend capsules, I started getting my stomach used to desiccated liver capsules, and I purchased 800 mcg Metafolin tablets to start taking once per day. I continued running in the mornings; I was, after all, training for a half marathon that I was scheduled to run on September 13th. And I did my best to amp up the nutrition in my already nutritious diet. All the kale, more chicken (just coming off of a 6-year stint as a strict vegetarian, I was only eating chicken once every week or two), lots of pastured eggs, raw milk, raw butter, bone broth, even more coconut oil, more home-fermented foods, no gluten. I wanted to, best I could, follow many of the Weston A. Price guidelines for pregnant and nursing mothers.

But then 6 weeks happened.

And then one day I was eating one of my favorite meals for lunch- a chickpea and broccoli burrito filling, topped with plenty of fermented salsa and mixed with spinach as a salad. And about halfway through eating that lunch, I realized each bite was getting more difficult than the previous. I forced myself through a few more bites, and all of the sudden this favorite meal of mine seemed absolutely detestable. I couldn't do it. I threw my lunch away. You guys- I THREW MY LUNCH AWAY. I hate wasting food. But I just.couldn't.look.at.it.

I don't remember what I ate the rest of the day, but I do remember than anytime I thought about that lunch, I got a very repulsive feeling in my stomach.

In the week following, my diet downgraded to mostly bagels and cream cheese, with the occasional cheese pizza or macaroni and cheese. Literally every day for a week, those are the only foods my stomach and brain could handle. Oh, and in that same week, I realized that my normal 8-9 hours of sleep just were NOT cutting it. And dragging myself out of bed early before work so that I could go on a run (remember- training for a half marathon) just was NOT an option. And in the middle of a four day vacation over Labor Day (read: all of the sleeping I didn't realize I was capable of), I found myself weepy on the phone with Jeremy, trying to find words to explain that I didn't think I could run a half marathon in two weeks, because just thinking about the 6:30am start time was stressing me out. (In life outside of pregnancy, I love being a morning person.) Oh- and those cod liver oil and dried liver capsules? Sure, my palate was okay with them, as the capsules themselves have no flavor, and I was so happy to be getting at least something nutritious in me. BUT then there was that day that trying to swallow one of those "enormous" capsules (regular sized, typically very easy to get down) resulted in a gag reflex that brought on the worst wave of nausea I have so far experienced in this pregnancy. And don't even get me started on my fridge full of home-fermented foods. I can't even look at them without remembering how bad this pregnancy makes me think they smell.

I am incredibly thankful that I haven't experienced any of the crazy morning sickness that many encounter during the first trimester. Exhaustion and food aversions are nothing compared to not being able to keep food down. I don't want to belittle that, and I so feel for those who have dealt with it. I don't know how you do it.

The funny thing about early pregnancy, at least for me, is that it is already a learning experience. As someone who does a pretty thorough job of micro-managing her life, I have learned these past few weeks to LET GO.

Somewhere between throwing away my garbanzo beans and picking up my 20th bagel and cream cheese, sitting on the couch too tired to do anything but binge-watch Scrubs, I realized that it was going to be okay only if I let myself think that way. So I did. I let myself eat what my body was asking for. I stopped setting my alarm clock. I did not go and run that half-marathon. I stopped micro-managing and started listening. And while it was a bit of a rough patch regardless of how I chose to get through it, I firmly believe that changing my mindset made it immensely easier.

And here I am, three and a half weeks later, and starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Vegetables are tasty again! I've graduated to peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches instead of bagels and cream cheese. I did some jogging in the middle of a long walk the other day. Vacuuming my apartment doesn't result in me needing to lay on the couch doing nothing for a half hour afterwards. I'm still a few weeks away from the second trimester, but I can see it. And it seems so much more reachable with this beautiful mindset of listening and letting go.