Happy Tail: Goran
When Annex Cat Rescue adopter Gillian set out to find a new cat to join her family, she only had one item on her wish list: must get along with Drago.
“I said in my email to ACR, ‘my cat Drago is kind of an asshole,’” she laughs. “And that I was looking for a cat who is chill and can handle it.”
Drago, her first cat, was semi-feral. He’d had a tough relationship with Gillian’s other cat, Luka. It had taken a year for Gillian to get them to stop fighting all the time, and even after that, they never fully got along. After Luka died in 2016, Gillian wanted to find Drago a new friend. But it wouldn’t be easy finding one that was easygoing but not a pushover — and who had FIV, like Drago.
“I needed to go to a place where they really know the cats, so that I wouldn’t be surprised by their personality,” Gillian says. Her boyfriend’s sister told her she’d had a great experience with ACR, so Gillian decided to reach out. She almost immediately heard back. A volunteer told Gillian that the perfect cat for her had recently come in. He needed some medical attention, so he was in the care of foster mom, Carol.
“So I went to go meet Carol and her wonderful brood,” Gillian laughs, referring to Carol’s six cats. New to the brood was Goran, then called Vinnie. Gillian was taken with him immediately. “He was so chill!”
But Goran’s laidback attitude belied a dramatic backstory. He had been found in a cat colony by two local rescuers. At first, they thought he was feral like the rest of the colony, but after they saw how comfortable he was around people, they wondered if he was a house cat who had gotten lost instead.
Either way, his rough upbringing didn’t seem to have made a big impact on his personality. Gillian knew right away that he was the cat for her and Drago. She even gave him a new, Croatian name, so he could fit in with the rest of the family: Goran.
Gillian was worried about the integration process, as it had given her so many headaches with Luka and Drago. But Goran’s integration went more smoothly than she could have hoped. Luka had been very passive around the house, and Drago had taken advantage of that. Goran, on the other hand, wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself. They balanced each other out. Soon, they were napping together, and even playing tag.
A year after his adoption, Gillian is thrilled with how well Goran fits into the family. “He’s become very bossy. He comes in at 6 am and wakes us up for food. He’s very affectionate, he loves to come between us in bed and snuggle. He has really blossomed and owns us all!”
What could have been a tricky adoption has become a huge success for everyone: Gillian, Drago, and Goran.
-Aleks Kandic
