CALI
John and Bethany Joseph
“We moved into our new house in May 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic. From the very first day this cute, friendly cat showed up and kept trying to come inside. We could see she had a collar and a tag (her name was Cali) so at first we would just go out on the porch and pet her. Things went on this way for many months.
Then in February 2021, when it was cold and snowy out, I could see her outside from my office window and decided to let her inside. At first she would just come during the day and sleep. We couldn’t read her collar well enough to figure out exactly where she lived. In the summer she would follow us on walks through the neighborhood and it was on one of these walks that we figured out she belonged to the neighbor that lived behind us. They were in their driveway and called to her when they saw her following us. They jokingly asked if we wanted a cat, especially since she likes to wake you up at 3:00am. We just said she hung out at our house a lot but didn’t say that she came inside.
Right before Christmas of 2021, she stayed all night at our house 3 nights in a row. The next afternoon she left for a few hours and when she came back she had an Apple Air Tag hanging from her collar. We left that night to go visit family in PA for Christmas and came back by New Year’s Eve. Cali showed back up when we got home and was no longer wearing the Air Tag. She spent the night again. On New Year’s Day afternoon John was out working in the garage and heard the son out walking around calling for Cali. She had just gone out back and John told the boy he could walk through the yard and look for her. She wouldn’t let him pick her up, so we said we’d try to bring her home if she came back.
She came back a little while later and she followed me around the block to walk to their house. I introduced myself to the cat’s owner, gave her our cell phone numbers, and she gave me theirs. We would just text each other to say what Cali’s status was and she was living at both houses. They had another cat named Stella and Cali didn’t really like her, so we think she liked coming to our house to be the only cat.
Since 2023, Cali pretty much resides at our house full time. We have now all become friends. This beautiful little cat was always such a bright spot during a difficult time. Now we can’t imagine life without her and have her to thank for some great new friends.”
Mon Valley Paws 