26 Pound Stray Cat Finds The PURRFECT Home.
Rocky Kanaka
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Interview with Rebecca Garza, who rescued Kiwi Summer
Video Transcript
Have you always had, uh, cats in your life? And if so, why do you love ’em? I’ve always had cats in my life. I’ve had my previous cat for nine and a half years. It’s always just been an animal I’ve been drawn to just because they’re so quirky and they’re so fun to be around. And I really honestly love any kind of cat I’ve been, you know, met with in my life.
So my husband and I were looking to adopt recently just because we had. From Texas all the way over here to California, and we felt like maybe an animal was something we needed in our lives. Instead of kind of like taking the big step of children. We wanted to enjoy our married life with an animal, but more specifically a cat.
And we just kind of came across her and fell in love with her instantly. Like what do you know about Kiwi Summer’s, uh, journey or story before? Um, she found her way to. So when it came to her story, I know the shelter had informed us that she was surrendered twice before we met her at this current shelter.
And she was kind of abandoned. And I know at some point she was even ran over with the car and that was just so heartbreaking for us to hear because she’s such a loving cat from the moment we met. You know, the moment we saw her, she just instantly started purring, instantly just loving on us. And so it was so sad to know like that she was just surrendered twice really suddenly.
Without any explanation, cuz I know they said that they couldn’t have, they didn’t reach the, the previous owner when they had tried calling her, like any call that they had made was just like instantly declined. I mean, at least she found her way to you. So that’s the good part. What about Kiwi Summer led you to her?
So from the moment we saw her profile for adoption, her. Face was really what drew me in. She had like the most cutest like roundest face with like these big, beautiful like auburn ish green eyes. And I fell in love and as soon as I showed my husband, he was like, We should go look at her, you know, and he’s not really used to being around cats like I am.
So for him to say that, that like made me so happy that he was willing to drive out with me to go look at her. How, uh, did the first meeting with Kiwi Summer go? So when we had first met her, we were instantly taken back by her size. We knew she was a bigger cat, but we didn’t realize how big of a cat she was.
But the affection that she showed to me and my husband was just. So loving. We immediately just fell in love with her. I know when she first started, um, getting used to her apartment on the very first day, she was a little bit standoffish. She would, wasn’t really too familiar with her surroundings obviously.
So she spent a lot of the day just kind of exploring. We tried to get her situated in like a, you know, an isolated room cuz that was what was recommended by the shelter. But, Eventually she really wanted to just be around us, so we figured like, okay, you know what? Let’s give this a shot. Let her kind of get used to her surroundings, like our living room, which is where she spends most of the time anyway, and as well as us.
So, The first day, she instantly just felt so comfortable around us, which really was a big shocker cuz we were expecting her to be a little bit more anxious. What about Kiwi Summer caught your eye, like pulled at your heart strings. So what drew me to Kiwi Summer the most was. Just her face alone. She had the sweetest looking face that I’ve ever seen on a cat.
And looking at her like, I just knew like I have to see this cat in person. Like this has to be my cat. Like she’s beautiful. Like as soon as we saw her, I was just like obsessed with her. And I like would show my husband like randomly, I’m like, look, look, this is a cat. Like we should go see it, right? Like this is our cat and he.
Okay, let’s go see like it’s fine. And like for him not being a big cat person, he like fell in love with her and he’ll tell me every single day, as soon as we’re going to bed, he’s like, I love her so much. Like she’s beautiful. I love her. Did you have any concerns, um, when adopting Kiwi Summer? At first, my first concern with adopting Kiwi summer was mostly her weight.
She was listed as a 24 pound cat, and that was something I had no experience in handling before when it came to, you know, obesity and cats. So that was a big concern of mine. On the risk of us being able to handle that, I wholeheartedly believe Kiwi Summers. Our home for me and my husband, mostly because she is completely at peace with us.
She shows so much love and affection to us that I can’t imagine her being in a family like unlike us cuz we will drop anything just to be with her. Really. We love spending time with her. We love watching movies with her. We love. Just giving her attention that she craves. Well, how is Kiwi Summer doing in your home after leaving the shelter?
So after leaving the shelter, I think Kiwi Summer’s really settling in, um, pretty well. She’s made herself really comfortable and she’s really adjusted to me and my husband’s routine. Um, Daley and Nightly, which is something I’m really proud of her for doing. I think the name Kiwi Fitzer so perfectly cuz she’s just like a little round fruit, almost like she’s perfectly round just like a Kiwi.
But I look at her and I’m like, that’s your name. Like the Luna is not your name. Like Kiwi Summer’s definitely your name. What are a few of Kiwi Summer’s Best Moments at home? So a few of Kiwi Summer’s Best Moments at home are definitely. Having a morning routine with us. My husband wakes up before any of us do, and the moment he wakes up and starts getting ready for work at like 5:00 AM she gets up and starts following him around, gets ready for, you know, him to eat breakfast so she can watch him and spend time, and then we’ll go back to sleep until I start getting ready for work or school and.
She’ll just follow me around the house and I love that I’m obsessed that she wants to go everywhere with us in the morning. Some of her worst moments have to be, um, the first few nights we had gotten her, she started to yell in the middle of the night, so, We kind of came to the conclusion it’s not because she’s hungry, it’s because of more of an an like an anxious attachment style from her.
So she just wants to know where we are, cuz she’ll do it in front of our bedroom door. So we started doing this thing where we will open the door so she can check in on us and then she’ll come back to her spot on the couch, cuz that’s mostly where she sleeps at night. Anyways. But I think she just wants to know that we’re here and like we haven’t left her, which was a little heartbreaking to, you know, come to the terms of.
Like we’re here. We’re always here for you. . If somebody is thinking about adopting a shelter cat, what are three things you think they should know before doing that? So, if anybody wants to adopt a shelter cat, the three main things I would give to them is one, give your cat time to adjust in your home.
It’s not an easy transition for them, and it’s a new transition for, you know, the owner. , you know, adopting this cat. So it’s one big important thing that they should know that it’s gonna be a rough transition at first, if anything. Number two is that they deserve so much love. They are in need of like love, like as an endless supply almost.
And so I just want to reiterate that like. If you’re adopting a cat, you need to just show them like the love that they deserve, because chances are they probably didn’t get it from their previous homes. The third thing I would probably say is give your cat a routine. That’s really important. If you want to, you know, establish a nice home for your cat, you need to give them a routine.
What are the most rewarding parts of this journey with Kiwi Summer? So I wanna say the most rewarding thing about adopting Kiwi. Been the endless love that she’s given me and my husband. And I really do think it’s filled like a little void in our hearts. Um, just because she, it’s so rewarding to see her so affectionate and so vocal.
I love when she yells at us and I love when she cuddles us either in the morning or when we get home from school or work, and it’s great. It’s just. tear jerky almost. I just wanna be so patient and gentle and I just wanna show her like, if she does something, it’s okay. It’s, I’m not gonna get mad at her.
I’m not gonna, you know, lash out on her in any way. I just wanna show her the love that she deserves in our household is only me and my husband who live here. We don’t have any kids. Our only child would. Kiwi summer and she’s going to stay an only child for a while. So one way she’s bonded with me and my husband is that she’ll watch movies with us.
We’re really big movie people, so as soon as we get home, we kind of eat dinner and watch a movie and she. Loves to just watch it with us. Like she’ll actively look at the TV and kind of like twitch her ears and like look back and forth and it’s so cute. And she’s a really big like fan of the John Wick franchise, apparently
So Kiwi’s Summer’s current diet is, A can and a half of blue buffalo in the morning and that’s what the vet had recommended to her and one can and one fourth of a can at night cuz she will not eat dry food for the life of us. We’ve tried feeding her different kinds of food just to kind of. Experiment and tried integrating different kinds of food, but as of right now, she’s strictly on a wet food, um, diet.
So Kiwi Summer’s favorite activity so far is chasing, um, we, we’ve done this thing where we’ll do laps around the island, and so that’s kind of how we integrate a lot of exercise with her. And she also likes that this little string toy that looks like a little worm, but it has like these huge eyeballs on it.
But she mostly likes the feather part of it, so she’ll like it. Like if my husband passes in front of her, she’ll like try to like snap it like right in front of her. Um, so even though she’s not actively running, she can use her paws so fast. One exercise that me and my husband have gone Kiwi summer to do is, um, climbing on our.
Floating island. There’s different levels to it. So what we’ll do is place a snack in the middle of the island and hope that she jumps onto it. And even though it took a little bit of encouragement to get her used to the exercise, she’s been doing it like a pro and she’s really been enjoying climbing up on things.
Now, how has Kiwi. Summer’s Health progressed. So Kiwi’s Health has progressed a lot since we’ve taken her from the shelter and even the prior shelter that she was at, she’s managed to lose at least three pounds, which we’re really proud of her for considering she started at a 24 pound, you know, weight.
Um, so having her lose weight and kind of like alleviate a lot. Pressure on her bones, help her liver enzymes and help her breathing a lot cause she does breathe really heavily because of her weight. Um, it’s all kind of like helped overall and she seems to be a lot happier now. I was super happy to talk with you and to hear more about how she’s doing.
I was very happy to hear when she finally got rest. And then ultimately was adopted. So yeah. I’m super happy to hear about everything. Um, thank you so much for taking the time to, to share with, um, with us. Yeah, of course.