Onyx and the Stirnimans: Furry Friends Fur-Ever
“Although I had cats growing up, Onyx is my first cat as an adult,” Janaye says. “Her original name, by the way, was Shamrock because she was born on St. Patrick’s day!
“We met Onyx at the home of her foster parent. When I first saw her picture on the Furry Friends website, I was drawn to her beautiful blue eyes. But after meeting her and seeing how exceptionally she did (she was perfect) with our 1-year-old son sealed the deal.
“Her adjustment to living with us was fairly quick. She had a week or so where she was shy and would run and hide under our couch, but it wasn’t long before she was running and bossing our two dogs around! When we adopted Onyx, our son had only said words like ‘mama’ and ‘dada.’ After having Onyx for several weeks, and teaching him what a cat is, he learned how to say the word ‘cat.’ Now he says it all the time and he’s obsessed with her.
“Our black lab and German shepherd are both females, and while they both get along wonderfully with Onyx, she’s built a special bond with our black lab Sage. They play and cuddle and Sage even grooms Onyx as if she were her own puppy! Onyx loves all of our son’s toys -- she thinks they’re hers – and so they share them. She also loves playing in empty boxes.
“She’s such a cuddle cat and she absolutely adores affection. She loves jumping up in your lap and cuddling you. It seems that she never outgrew the nursing stage because, to this day, she’ll hop on your lap and nurse on your hand until she falls asleep. We think she’ll continue to do this into adulthood. Another of her endearing habits is the way she screams so loudly to be fed in the morning!
“At night, Onyx sleeps on our bed either behind our heads or snuggled up next to Sage.”
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Furry Friends Fur-Ever Stories are compiled and written by Nomi Berger who is the bestselling author of seven novels, one work of non-fiction, two volumes of poetry, and hundreds of articles. She is a volunteer writer for Furry Friends in Vancouver, WA and also volunteers her writing skills to animal rescue groups in Canada and the USA.
