Happy Tail: Ro (formerly Jessy)
That old cliché about looks being deceiving and never judging a book by its cover? That’s a maxim Jonnie knows all about thanks to Ro, Jonnie’s spectacularly beautiful, elegant- and poised-looking — but humorously clumsy IRL — floofy, four-legged housemate.
“For a cat with no physical challenges, her centre of balance is maybe the worst I’ve seen,” Jonnie laughs. And as a lifelong cat parent who also shares their home with Cooper, they have witnessed sleek cat maneuvers previously. Ro is not that.
“She is a floppy, floppy lady and it’s adorable,” they continue. “Her most distinct feature is a lack of grace despite being so gorgeous. Everybody comments on it. Even my therapist, who I do Zoom calls with, tells her other patients about Ro.”
As is often the case with cats that land in ACR’s care, Ro’s journey from homelessness to happy indoor companion was bumpy. According to internal notes, Ro — then named Jessy but renamed by Jonnie after the Star Trek character Ro Laren — was born in a community member’s yard sometime in 2024.
Apparently denied intake by several local agencies, Jessy and her siblings Joe, Billie, Jackson and mama Joan were paired with foster Laurie, her first-ever gig with ACR. “Jessy was very standoffish at the beginning,” says Laurie, who eventually foster-failed with Joe and Billie; Joan and Jackson were later adopted out.
“I needed to handle the kittens to give them medication. In one instance, I picked Jessy up, maybe surprising her, and she bit and scratched me. And I dropped her. So, we kind of got off on the wrong foot.”
At the suggestion of a behaviourist, Laurie deployed what might be termed “the irresistible Churu treat turnaround method” to encourage Jessy’s trust.
“If Jessy looked my way, she’d get a bit of Churu. If she crept closer, she’d get a bit of Churu. Then it became, if she touched my hand, she’d get a bit of Churu. We created this pattern and over time, she became friendlier. I think had I not done the work with her that I did, she would not have ended up being the affectionate cat she is.”
As Laurie was diligently Churu-ing her charge, Jonnie was following ACR’s Instagram page. “I wanted to adopt a second cat for my little guy Cooper because he is so energetic and lovely; I thought he would thrive with a second cat. I saw Jessy come up and she is one of the most gorgeous cats I’d ever seen.”
Laurie felt that Jonnie was a superior adoption candidate, having visited a few times and even leaving a sweatshirt behind so Jessy could become familiar with their scent. But Ro still had some challenges to clear post-adoption, which happened in March 2025.
Asked how things went with Cooper the resident cat in the beginning, Jonnie chuckles. “Ah… tumultuous. I separated them for as long as I could in my apartment. There was one bad incident about four months in when Cooper was just hunting her. That was the lowest moment.”
But a separation while Jonnie was on holiday seemed to do the trick for Ro and Cooper, and Jonnie says both felines have since come around. “They don’t cuddle but they love to play and chase each other. She licks him and he accepts it, for which I am grateful.
“ACR was great to deal with and Laurie cared so much about Ro,” Jonnie adds. “She was very helpful making sure Ro was going to be as comfortable as she could be. That made the whole thing super-easy for me.
“Seeing Ro blossom from a very timid kitten to her full floppy, cuddly, and sassy self has been one of my most rewarding experiences. I didn’t know how she’d adapt to me and another cat, so to see her grow the way she has made everything worth it. Ro is the best.”
-Kim Hughes
