Cooper, formerly known as Sushi, was a very timid cat from a backyard colony. The mellow tabby was captured by a friendly volunteer trapper who wanted to get him into the foster program at ACR. Subsequently, Cooper was brought into the care of Carol in December 2019, an experienced foster working with ACR.

“Cooper was a very timid, passive soul, with not a mean bone in his body,” recalls Carol. His progress was very slow, taking it one step at a time at his own pace. He took his time breaking out of his shell, but he was always very gentle to Carol. After three weeks of hiding from Carol, Cooper finally showed up one day lying on Carol’s bed. It wasn’t long before he was purring and showing his stomach to Carol for belly rubs.

At this time, Kyla was also interested in adopting a cat and reached out. The first time Carol introduced Kyla to Cooper, he hid in the closet. Eventually, Cooper also warmed up to her and came to greet her.  Although a cat like Cooper was not typically considered for adoption, Kyla was a good candidate for Cooper and was very eager to take him on.

Kyla was more of a dog person and growing up, always had a dog around her. But she also really liked tabbies and Cooper was the perfect first cat for her. Kyla took Cooper in on Valentine’s Day and for the first two months that Kyla had him, he was timid and hiding like usual. Like Carol’s experience with Cooper, after two months of hiding, Cooper showed up one Easter weekend and politely asked for affection and tummy rubs. From that point on, Cooper would go on to be more confident around the home and his personality would begin to shine through.