My mom wanted an orange kitty & I’ll admit, I was secretly looking for a big gray kitty that I wanted to call Julien after a character in Trailer Park Boys. Mom saw Ricky backed up in a small corner of his cage & that was that. Sure the sign said in essence this guy was bite-y. But, we didn’t think that would be a big deal since our other cat Pounce de Leon would nip us from time to time.

The friendly folks at the front desk helped us adopt Ricky & they were so pleased we picked him. After all, we were experienced cat owners who’d dealt with bite-y cats & this should be a snap, we assured them.

What ensued was months & months of working with Smooshy to get him to the point where he would sometimes seek us to pet him…the thing that kept us all going was how incredibly cute he was, the moments when he’d snuggle next to you, sheer stubbornness, & to be frank, remembering how blithely I assured the HSHV staff how we could handle a little biting. There was no way I’d admit defeat & by that time, we’d totally fallen in love with his smooshy little face.

I’m proud to say we’ve come a long way & although he still needs his space, he will let me hold him & pet him, as long as I still allow him to hold wrestlemania with Pounce every Sunday while I’m trying to sleep in. We love this little pint sized terror with all our hearts & can’t thank the HSHV team enough for helping us find the perfect cat.

Ricky now Smooshy