Special Adoptions

An Acquired Taste

This kitten is:

a) Saying goodbye to his pals at the Best Friends TLC Cat Club.

b) Saying hello to Tracie, who's adopting him.

c) Getting ready to smack someone.

Answer: d) All of the above

Wilson has an underdeveloped cerebellum (part of his brain), so his movements are all a bit jerky. But that's never stopped this four-month-old from getting his own way and doing whatever he wants - starting with him persuading the kind folks at the Pet Kare Veterinary Clinic in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to send him to Best Friends.

He even managed to star in his own show when a TV company was making a pilot at Best Friends managed to tape him swatting all his favorite staff people! Then he met Tracie Baughn, a teacher from Williams, California.

"The moment I walked in, Wilson attacked me," says Tracie. "I just fell in love and knew I had to have him."

Tracie took Wilson home with her. She reports that she has bought him 30 toys, and every time he goes to bite her, she gives him a toy to play with. "I'm just going to let Wilson be Wilson. That's who he is and that's who I fell in love with."

A year later, Best Friends inquired how Wilson was doing.

"Well I haven't been bitten by any of them yet - I guess maybe I don't taste good," said Tracie. Far from being put off from her cat's bad habits, she decided to take home another hard-to-adopt kitty.

Wilson was doing so well roughhousing with "Bear," my mouthy chihuahua/terrier mix puppy, and myself, that I decided to adopt another biting and less adoptable kitty. But I couldn't decide which one so I took two, Thaddeus and Wally, both known for their unpredictable biting attacks."

Thaddeus, a 3-year-old Siamese kitty, came to Best Friends after having been found as a stray, near death from exposure and starvation. Those who know him warn that "Thaddeus loves to rub against your legs and wants to be petted, but you have to be careful, and don't pet him when he rolls on his back and 'acts' like he wants to be petted." Wally, another fellow with a taste for biting, is a 4-year-old tabby. He came to Best Friends on a trade from a rescue group in Phoenix, Arizona.

Tracie says, "I wanted to take home a hard- to-place kitty. When I met Wally, I picked him up and was told 'you're the first person he hasn't bitten'. Thaddeus was so handsome; I guess the kitties sense that I'm not worried about them biting me and so they don't. I love them just the way they are."

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