Cat Town: How did you pick your first cat? How did you know they were the right one for you?

Kareem: He chose me. I went to a shelter in Florida thinking I was going to pick out a female cat, sat down on the floor, crossed my legs, and this orange cat just walked up to me. He meowed, jumped in my lap, and just looked at me. I adopted him and named him Cloud.

When I first got him home, I worried that it wouldn’t work out. I wasn’t used to having a cat, so I actually took him back to the shelter. Looking back, he was just acting like a cat. Then I started dreaming about him. So I went back and brought him back. From that point on, he was the best cat I ever had. Everyone who met him loved him too.

Cat Town: What made Cloud so special as your first ever cat?

Kareem: He always wanted my attention, but Cloud would put on this show for people that he didn’t know, and make his eyes look big and pitiful so people would  give him treats. And then as soon as he got the treat, he would run off! But once he got to know you, he would let you touch him and play with him. Cats get a bad rep for being aloof, like they don’t get attached to people. Cloud taught me that’s not true. He had this green plush toy, and every so often he would just bring it to me. No matter where I was — on the couch, in bed, anywhere — he’d bring it to me. I later learned that’s one way cats show affection. 

I actually got him a playmate a few years later named ​Yuna. A Maryland shelter was giving her away. Nobody wanted to adopt her. The shelter was waiving fees. That really shaped how I think about older cats, because everybody wants kittens, but they don’t realize all kittens grow up to become cats. Cloud and Yuna bonded deeply. They groomed each other, ate together, slept together. If one couldn’t find the other, they would cry and call out.