Happy Tail: Zachary
In the fraught and often emotional world of urban cat rescue, high drama is typically the prevailing theme. So how refreshing to meet Zachary, a cat whose story is more rom com than thriller.
In July 2023, fluffy, black two-year-old Zachary landed with longtime ACR foster Alexis, her eighth foster overall. Initially brought into ACR from a backyard colony situation in the city’s west end, Zachary had been adopted out.
Unfortunately, “due to circumstances outside his [adopter’s] control,” Zachary was returned to ACR, as per the org’s policy of “once an ACR cat, always an ACR cat” meaning any cat handled by ACR is always welcome back into the fold as needed.
Happily, for Alexis, Zachary was a charmer who got comfy quickly, loved human interaction, playing fetch, and even engaging — albeit not always successfully — with Alexis’ other cats, Zoey and Oliver.
“He was timid at first, but he very quickly came out of his carrier and started looking around,” Alexis recalls. “He was very playful, and he really wanted to be friends with Zoey and Oliver. They weren’t interested.
“But that made me realize Zachary would be good in a home with other cats,” which had not been the case with his initial adopter, who also cited Zachary’s playfulness, noting in an email that “he will Parkour around 1 am.”
Enter Cara and Roger, whose cat The Dude was pining for his best friend The Little Guy who had died that August of cancer. “After Little Guy was gone, poor Dude would call to him at food time,” Cara says. “It was heartbreaking.”
Zachary’s adoption profile on the ACR website noted “his perfect home would be a place with a friendly young cat to be his buddy, and having people around to pet him. A larger space would be best as he is still young and gets the zoomies nightly, so he needs space to release brief periods of energy.”
Bingo, recalls Cara, a longtime ACR volunteer whose handmade catnip kickers are a cornerstone of the org’s grassroots fundraising efforts. “Funny enough, we had never previously adopted through ACR,” she says. “We had always taken in strays that had come around.” That included The Dude.
Cara, Roger, and Alexis all agreed the couple’s home situation would be ideal for Zachary. “Plus, Cara and Roger were so lovely and very committed to ACR,” Alexis says. Zach joined them permanently in September 2023.
Today, Zachary and The Dude are “pals. Zachary has such an outgoing personality,” Rogers adds, “and he transitioned into the household quite easily.”
“Zachary is a delightful, gorgeous boy, who gets the zoomies every single night. He is totally hilarious, though he can be a pest to Graycie,” Cara chuckles, citing cat number three, an elderly and infirm former street cat living out her twilight days with Cara, Roger, The Dude, and now Zachary.
“We honestly couldn’t be happier with Zachary. And,” Cara says, “he seems to like us, too.”
-Kim Hughes