Hello and welcome to our blog! Mom and Dad thought that this would be a great way for us to communicate with all of our friends and followers. We hope to post fairly regularly so that we can keep you up to date with what is happening with us.

For our first post, we wanted to address one of the questions that Mom and Dad get asked most often – Where can cats like us can be purchased? Mom is always happy to say that we weren’t purchased, we were all adopted. There are many wonderful animals – not just cats – available at your local shelter. When you adopt from a shelter, you are saving a life. Unfortunately, due to overpopulation, many shelter animals are euthanized to make room for more. Adopting an animal is a huge responsibility and commitment, but it does not only save the life of an animal, it changes the life of the human as well. Mom and Dad couldn’t imagine their lives without us. They are as grateful for us as we are for them.

Both Parker and Lily were adopted from the Baldwin Park Shelter (http://bit.ly/2BueUtT). After years of pleading with Dad, Mom finally convinced him to let her adopt a cat. As luck would have it, the next day, some kind volunteers from the Baldwin Parker Shelter brought Parker to an adoption fair at Mom’s work. Back then, Parker was named Kiera. After Mom and Dad watched “Life of Pi” and saw “Richard Parker” the tiger in the film, they thought “Parker” would be the perfect name for a kitty. As soon as Mom saw “Kiera”, she knew that she was the Parker that she was looking for. Skinny and scruffy, Mom knew that she and Dad could help her become the Parker that she was meant to be with their love and care. Parker surpassed all of their expectations. So sweet and so well-behaved, Mom and Dad still can’t imagine Parker living on the street as a stray. She was always meant to be part of their family.

Weeks passed and Mom and Dad noticed as happy as Parker was, it seemed like she missed them a lot when they were at work. It was then Mom decided that it was time to have “TWO KITTENS”. Again, after some convincing, Dad finally agreed. He wanted Parker to be happy all the time – not just when Mom and Dad were at home. Mom followed the Baldwin Park Shelter on Facebook after adopting Parker and one day, she caught sight of a photo of an adorable baby calico with her siblings and cat mom. That little calico was sitting next to her mom and had her head tilted ever so slightly to the side. Mom knew that that calico was Lily, but Lily was still too little to be taken from her cat mom, so she had to wait a few more weeks for Lily to be old enough to take home. When Lily was ready, Mom and Dad were standing outside the door half an hour before opening so that they could take her home right away. There were so many kittens that needed to be adopted, that Mom didn’t spot Lily right away. As Mom was losing hope, Dad looked down at his feet and saw a little face peering up at him through a box. It was Lily! Mom scooped Lily up in her arms and took her home.

A few years passed and Mom and Dad thought it was time that they did more to help at the shelter than donate food and toys as they have done in the past. They decided that it was time to help foster to give more animals a chance for being adopted. Mom bought all the supplies and went to their local shelter – http://www.laanimalservices.com/shelters/west-los-angeles/ – so that they could sign up to foster. While Mom and Dad were waiting for the paperwork, Jasmine’s foster happened to also be waiting in the lobby. Mom struck up a conversation with her about why they were there and she said – “you have to meet one of my fosters.” Shortly thereafter, one of the techs from the shelter walked out and had Jasmine laying in her arms on her back. Mom held her and immediately fell in love. Mom and Dad weren’t looking to adopt another cat, but Mom knew Jasmine was meant to be part of the family. And just like that, we became Parker, Lily and Jasmine.