What you’re about to read is a heartbreaking story about Valentino, a beautiful Ragdoll feline who found himself outside his own home after his family packed their bags and moved away.
Without an ounce of compassion, his ex-owners abandoned him, leaving him to fend for himself.
Alone and afraid, Valentino roamed the streets of his neighborhood, going from one house to another, hoping to find someone willing to take him under their wing.
One day, seasoned foster mom Debbie Harris received a call from her coworker, asking if she could take in a homeless neighborhood cat.
According to her coworker, she had been feeding the poor fluff whose owners had sold their home and moved away without him.
The kind woman would’ve adopted him herself, but since her husband had severe cat allergies, all she could do was offer him temporary residence in her garage and contact the one person she knew could help him.
Unable to say no to such an urgent plea, Debbie agreed to help the cat – which is precisely how she met Valentino!
It took Debbie one look to completely fall in love with her new foster furbaby. She posted a photo of Valentino on her Instagram profile sharing with her followers the joy of meeting such a magnificent ball of white fluff.
In the caption, she wrote:
“Its temperament is very sweet and docile, and it is confidently walking around like it owns the place already. (…) I am still not sure if it’s a male or female yet. I tried to peak, but it was like parting the Red Sea or something. And, our relationship hasn’t progressed that far yet. I’ll wait and try again later today.”
As with her other foster felines, Debbie made a vet appointment for Valentino, wanting to determine his gender and age and check his overall health.
According to another Instagram post, Valentino was such a good boy at the vet’s office. In Debbie’s words, he was very relaxed and quite the little gentleman. He greeted and rubbed on everyone, purring his way into the staff’s hearts.
The vet informed Debbie that Valentino was a 12-pound male Ragdoll cat, around 2 to 3 years old.
Aside from a minor upper respiratory infection (URI), for which he was prescribed proper antibiotics, he was generally in good health. His blood test was negative for feline diseases, and he received his rabies vaccination.
The vet also clipped off four large matted areas to give him some relief until the time came for him to be professionally groomed.
In less than a month, Valentino completely recovered from his URI, which made Debbie extremely happy. She wrote on her Instagram:
“What a complete love bug Valentino is. He sure is mellow and friendly, and is definitely living up to the Ragdoll reputation. He is finished with his medication and has fully recovered from his upper respiratory infection. I took him back to my vet for his distemper vaccination, and he got a clean bill of health. So he earned a spa day!”
She also bragged about how well Valentino behaved at the groomer’s. She mentioned how the groomer was completely smitten with him, asking if she could adopt him.
Debbie informed the groomer that she already has a long list of potential adopters, but that no decision has been made yet.
Unsure why was that so, Debbie thought that this adorable ball of white fluff might be her new foster fail…
For all of you unfamiliar with the term, foster fail is a cat that a person takes in intending to offer it a temporary home (a.k.a. foster home) but ends up falling in love with and adopting it for good.
That’s exactly how things went for Debbie!
After spending some time with Valentino, she simply couldn’t bear the thought of parting ways with him. So, she decided to shift the narrative from foster to forever and offer Valentino all the love he deserved!
Before adopting Valentino, Debbie already had two foster fails, Jojo and Lil Man.
After the awkward get-to-know stage, the three felines soon found common ground, sorting out all the important issues, like who’s the boss in their home.
The verdict was that Valentino and Lil Man are best friends forever, while Jojo occasionally makes her appearance, supervising the boys and ensuring they’re not causing havoc in the house.
I’m so happy Valentino managed to find his new forever home. After the heartbreak of being abandoned, he truly deserved someone special to restore his faith in love and humans. And I think Debbie did an amazing job!
Because of that, I encourage you to support her work by following her Instagram profile. Such a devoted cat enthusiast truly deserves our support!
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