Moonshine – Ragdoll of the Week

My first experience with a cat was at the age of 13 when I spent the night at my then best friend’s house. My eyes itched, I was sneezing like crazy, and started to have a hard time breathing. I sadly had to take be taken back home.

Since then, I avoided cats or needed to take allergy medications before I visited a home with cats. Additionally, the cats I’ve been around always hid when guests came around so I started to develop the perception cats were not fun and didn’t understand why people would have these animals as pets.

I then became a proud owner of two Siberian Huskies. They are no longer with me as of May 2019. I moved to an apartment later that year in the Chicago area and was missing the companionship of an animal. I wasn’t allowed to have pets in my apartment but was convinced I can sneak a cat in.

My co-worker told me about Ragdoll cats, and I did further research on the breed and found out a Ragdoll would be a perfect fit for me if they are as docile and affectionate as I had read. Even if I was allergic to a cat, I wanted a pet really bad and accepted that I will need to to allergy medications everyday.

That same week I found an advertisement for a 9 year old retired queen Ragdoll up for adoption in Wisconsin and after taking a couple allergy pills, my mom and I drove out to meet her the following day. It was love at first sight! She was the most beautiful feline I’ve ever seen, and the allergy meds seemed to be helping. She came with me back to my downtown apartment to live her retirement in her new forever home.

Her previous owners called her Sunshine, but I wasn’t too keen on that name so I named her Moonshine, as she already responded well to her name. I felt guilty about sneaking her into my apartment and wrote a letter to the property manager about her. She was so kind to let Moonshine stay so long as she wasn’t a nuisance to other tenants (which she definitely isn’t).

Moonshine is incredibly affectionate and playful. She loves to lay on me to take naps, follow me around, chill in her cat cave or sit on the bay window and people watch. My apartment is situated above two bustling restaurants, and she has adapted to being a “city kitty”.

She is not shy around my guests either! I have taken her camping several times, and even went out of town for a wedding in Michigan this summer and stayed in a hotel. She is a wonderful travel companion. She meows a bit when we travel by car but eventually calms down and falls asleep.

I still love dogs but I found out how cats make wonderful companions as well. I’m crazy about my Moonshine!

As for my allergies, they seem to be managed well with medications and the times that I’ve forgotten to take them, I haven’t had an allergic reaction to her. Not sure if I’ve grown out of my cat allergies or maybe Moonshine and I were meant to be!

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