Each week it’s a new Furry Friend waiting to be adopted at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa.

This week:  It’s all the black cats at the ARL.  The pictures you see throughout this post are just a few of the black cats you can adopt at the ARL right now.  There are many more, and some are parts of bonded buddy sets, so it’s twice the love!

I chose to feature black cats this week for a couple of reasons, 1. It’s Halloween and black cats are lucky!  (No really, look it up, they are nothing like their reputation.)  2. A black cat saved my life 14 years ago this week.  No really.  I was in a very dark place, working at a job I hated (no, not this place, I love this place).  My job included driving all over Chicago to meet with people and I just didn’t want to function anymore.  And then I ended up stopped in traffic, which changed my life.

It wasn’t the typical place to be stopped in Chicago, the freeway, it was a four-way stop in a busy neighborhood and there was a woman running around in the intersection.  Soon there were others doing the same thing and, out of curiosity, I got out to see what was going on.  It turned out that a tiny little black kitten was running in traffic and needed to be saved.  Long story short – I was the one who caught him.  I was going to put him somewhere safe and drive away, but the woman was hysterical and insisted I take him with me.

So, I did.  I had no idea what I was going to do with this scrappy little kitten, since I was living in an extended stay hotel.  But there we were, stopping at a grocery store to buy litter and food.  When we landed back at the hotel we just stared at each other for a while; I’m pretty sure we were in shock.  Then I gave him a bath, turns out he was black, but there was a tiny white spot too that had been hidden by dirt.

That night I put him in bed with me, determined to turn him in to an animal shelter the next day and go on with my miserable life.  When I woke up the next morning however, that had all changed – he was sleeping across my neck.  I instantly felt happier and knew, I had saved him from the street and he had saved me from the abyss – after all, I had to stick around to care for this tiny new life.  🙂

Fourteen years later, Obi-Wan Kenobi is as healthy, happy and cuddly as ever, maybe even more so.  And I love him because he has been my dearest friend from that very first night we met and he saved my life.

So, the moral of the story is, a little love can change your world, and the ARL has lots of second chances to help make it happen.

-Kate

P.S. – This is Obi-Wan.