Boinga (formerly Cashew) was adopted from the Edmonton Humane Society in December 2017. Recently, we received this letter from his Mom:

“To the wonderful staff and volunteers: thank you. How can I express this adequately?? I will try 🙂

Last December, I adopted a six-month-old male black-and-white tuxedo kitty you’d named Cashew. He’d been with you about a month, and ‎you’d healed his three broken teeth, nourished him back from hunger, and treated a respiratory infection. 

Cashew had just gone up for adoption the very day I visited. He was playing with abandon with what looked like a sock. I picked him up, he gave me one kiss, settled down on my chest, and promptly fell asleep. Well… we were both goners at that moment. 🙂 

I brought Cashew home, opened the carrier, and out he came…. leaping and jumping with glee…. boing, boing, boing like a bouncing ball. I did end up renaming him Boing-a Boy, and it suits him!! 

Boinga emanates pure love. When others meet him, they fall in love. They say, “he’s just not normal!” and I say, “I know! He just came that way!”. He stands up on hind legs and reaches out his front paws to be picked up for hugs. And he does this with one and all!! He came knowing how to fetch (and it remains our night-time routine). He loves doing yoga (skedaddling down my back if I’m in downward dog is a fave of his, and I hold his paws together at the end of every session to share in the “Namaste.”). He just gives love. He IS love. 

His “sister” was here waiting for his arrival. Her name is Tissue — short for Trust Issues. She was a feral black tabby kitten I had rescued from my back alley about a year prior. It took months just to be able to touch her, and I hand-fed her cat food dipped in cream for many months when she was too timid to come out from under a bed, or under a chair, or from behind a painting. Our journey in gradual trust-building was, quite simply… amazing.

Boinga and Tissue became fast friends. Never a hiss, never a growl from either. Today, when I hear them scampering up and down the stairs chasing each other in play, my heart bursts with joy. Boinga has drawn Tissue even further out. He has taught her to play and that — yes!! — cuddling IS safe.

I go to bed each night, and wake up each morn, with Tissue on my left, and Boinga on my right, and it is a purr-fest all around. Such joy. I was recently diagnosed with PTSD, and in the healing of that, these precious spirits have been… lifesavers. 

Thank you for the injections of love and care you gave to wee Boinga. Please share with all who cared for him. He gives that love back freely to any and all he meets, animal and human. It’s a thing of wonder. 

Boinga and Tissue are warm, well-fed, always indoors, and loved like crazy. As I write, they are curled up together in one of their favourite spots on top of the piano, with a fire in the grate. My heart sings.

With more thanks than words can do justice,
Nita”