by Bernie Rice—
When Bun Bun came to the shelter in the summer of 2017, he had no idea how drastically his life would change within the next year. He was brought to the shelter after his owner was found deceased, so he was traumatized and skinny from having to deal with his owner’s death and hunger in the following days. He was broken and didn’t let anyone touch him, and he hissed when anyone came near him too quickly.
One fateful day last August, Ashley and her partner Drake were destined to meet Bun Bun. Ashley and Drake had gone into the shelter for foster orientation, and the shelter was so overloaded that day that they decided to wander through and look at the animals that needed fostering, with no intent of taking one home that day. Well, the universe had a different idea about that. As they walked through the shelter, Drake spotted Bun Bun, who was sitting in the back of his kennel with his head down, not wanting anyone to look at him. Drake instantly connected with Bun Bun for some reason and wanted to take him home to foster. Ashley was a bit intimidated to take a cat home that looked so afraid and so shut down, but her partner had that instant connection and couldn’t pass Bun Bun up. Drake knelt down and stayed by Bun Bun’s door and said to Ashley, “we need to take him.” Ashley had grown up with cats in the family, but Drake grew up with dogs and had never had a cats, so Ashley was surprised he jumped in head first for an adult cat (it was estimated that Bun Bun was 6-9 years old) that was truly terrified.
When they got Bun Bun home, Ashley and Drake didn’t want to force attention on him, so they let him run the show for the first month or so. They built him a little cave in their closet that had everything he needed: litterbox, food, and water so he didn’t need to come out and see them if he didn’t want to. Ashley and Drake sat outside the closet space every day and would sit there and drink coffee, watch TV, play cards, anything but focus attention on Bun Bun, so he got used to them being by him and would realize nothing bad was going to happen. Luckily for them, Bun Bun was very food motivated so they started out by pushing a treat toward him and he would come and grab it and eventually became comfortable being near their hands. Ashley considers this Bun Bun’s first big breakthrough. And then all of a sudden one day it was fine. Bun was fine touching their hands.
For the next couple of weeks, once he was comfortable with taking a treat from their hands, Ashley and Drake would try to pet Bun Bun. Sometimes he’d hiss, or run away and go hide in his closet. If that happened, they’d go back to square one, just pushing treats toward him. Then two weeks later, Bun Bun all of a sudden decided he loved being pet. Just like that. So they’d scratch his head and he loved it; then they’d try to pet his back and he’d be afraid, so they’d take a step back and get comfortable again. Ashley and Drake took it slow and Bun Bun make tremendous progress over time. He got really chatty with a “man meow” and started to chat all the time. It took a while but he went from not even looking them in the eye to following them around and chatting away.
Bun Bun got so comfortable with Ashley and Drake that one day he decided he didn’t want to be in the closet anymore. Ashley went looking for him and found him sitting on the bottom shelf of their book shelf, pressed up against the books. So Ashley moved all the books from that shelf and Bun Bun had a new “fort” for himself.
It took a while but Ashley and Drake loved watching this cat that was once in rough shape turn a corner and start meowing for their attention, enjoy being pet, and seeing him decide that people were okay. It was heartbreaking for them and rewarding at the same time. Bun Bun was a cat that was in such bad emotional shape when they got him from the shelter, that the shelter employees weren’t sure he was able to turn around to eventually be adoptable. If not, the next step was to look into a barn cat program because they thought he may never want people. So what a joy it was for Ashley and Drake to witness Bun Bun, who was terrified and shut down at the beginning, become a super chatty love bug who loved being pet and would lay on floor and plop over on his side begging to be pet and would purr and purr and purr and purr. Ashley couldn’t believe he was the same cat they had seen at the beginning.
Once Bun Bun had made enough progress to be adopted, he had such big fluffy cheeks—his “buns” (hence the name Bun Bun)—and a cute quirky tail that only half-works so it looks like a fish hook, that he had many potential adopters who understood they’d need to be patient and take it slow with Bun Bun to keep his progress going. Now Ashley and Drake are on foster #2—Iris—and they hope to be as helpful to her as they were to Bun Bun.
Ashley learned during the fostering process that it’s so important to not give up on an animal. Her lesson is that no matter how scared animals are, deep down they just want someone to love them and speak their language a bit. For her it was incredible to see a cat so scared to come to trust someone again, and it’s one of the greatest things she’s ever done.
SASF thanks Ashley for sharing her and Drake’s experience with Bun Bun and for being a part of SAS’ fospice and foster programs. SASF is honored to help fund these heroic efforts, made possible thanks to generous and committed donors.
To learn more about the fospice program and foster volunteer opportunities, please visit: http://www.seattle.gov/animal-shelter/volunteer/foster-care