Frans is a little red cat born about 5-8 years ago. He's been quite an unfortunate kitty all of his life but hopefully he'll be happy from now on.
At first Frans was my sisters cat and lived at her home together with another cat, the younger and rather silly-looking Nelson. Since I very rarely meet my sister despite us living in the same town I didn't really see him a lot until the day my mom said she had to take my sisters cat to the vet and I asked to come with her.
This wasn't the brightest idea since I had to sit at a cold bench and wait for the doctors to finish whatever they were doing. I don't remember what exactly was wrong with him but I remember it requiring several operations and giving the cat medicine every day for X weeks.
Since my sister worked all day and apparently didn't have time to give her cat medicine mom ended up visiting him every day for these weeks and I often came with her, though I just as often ended up just playing with the younger and more energetic Nelson while my mom gave Frans his medicine and petted him a little.
Once again I have forgotten the exact circumstances but for some reason my sister couldn't keep her cats and both of them ended up living at my fathers house. His sickness as well as a neighbors cat bullying Frans had left him timid and careful while Nelson was silly and carefree. My father isn't really all that good with easily frightened animals and has a tendency to try and pick them up and carry them away whenever he feels like it and use a really loud voice when talking to them. This was fine with Nelson who thought getting attention and having someone to play with was like the best thing ever but didn't really work as well with Frans.
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| Frans at my fathers house. |
Because of this Nelson quickly became my fathers favorite and he unconsciously begun to favor Nelson to the point where he thought the silly little cat literary couldn't do anything wrong (when my father found a shattered flower pot and Nelson next to it, covered in dirt he still thought poor Frans was the one responsible despite the older cat not even being close to the flower pot because, according to him, Nelson never broke anything!) and with Nelson being a lot more social than Frans the shyer cat got sort of pushed away.
And one day my father was supposed to move in with his girlfriend (this didn't happen because he's got a job here and she lives two hours away and now he lives with my mom, giving me sort of a complicated family situation to explain to people, what's with my divorced parents living together despite not dating and the father having a girlfriend who's aware of it) and got rid of his home . This meant the cats had to find a new home since my fathers girlfriend has got a dog (a big and very playful dog).
Nelson ended up living with us (mom, dad, me) which was really fortunate since my father and the silly-looking cat ended up being reunited again but finding a home for Frans was harder. Of course we would have adopted him as well but the cat we already had (Sonic, commonly referred to as the meatball with legs or Beuf) hated him and the one time we had tried to introduce them to each other (a long time ago when my sister was on vacation and Frans lived with us) Frans got banished to the top shelf in the closet for a week with Sonic chasing him up there again every time he attempted to go down (we put up food and water of course and closed the closet so he would get to be alone).
Getting someone to take care of a five year old cat of no specific breed and a history of diseases isn't easy and we had almost given up when one of my friends who already had two cats stepped in.
Soon Frans was moved from my fathers house to my friends house and I was the one to drop him of. At first things were a little chaotic and we had to chase one of her cats into another room with the help of a vacuum cleaner and I was a bit concerned about if it would really work. However looking down at Frans and seeing him actually rubbing his cheek against my friends leg, letting her pet him and purr I was reassured.
Less than a year has passed since Frans started living with my friend but I can tell he's happier than ever. Now he's got two considerate humans (My friend and her mother) who want nothing more than to make him happy and he's befriended both of the other cats. When I came to visit at first he would run away from me, perhaps because he thought I would take him away again, but now, just a few months after he started living with them, I can already see changes in his behavior. He no longer runs away as fast as someone opened the door but now he comes to see who it is and sometimes even lets the visitors pet him, something that would've never happened a year ago. He's walking around the house and playing instead of hiding and comes to his owners seeking affection often. It seems Frans has finally found a home.
*All pictures except the 2nd one belong to Omia (Current owner of Frans) and are used with permission
