Priscilla and Lorien Kelly: Furry Friends Fur-Ever

“I grew up in a cat loving family, and going back to my earliest memories, we always had multiple cats,” Lorien says. “After marrying my husband who wasn’t sure how he felt about them, he became the best cat daddy ever to my two fluffy Siamese girls. At some point, we decided that going forward we would always adopt senior or special needs cats.

“Enter Priscilla (aka Prissy Pants, Priscilly Pants or Priscilly) in 2021. I met her while volunteering at the Furry Friends shelter, but she was very stressed and withdrawn there. She’d had a rough start to life, having been born and lived under someone’s porch for several years until the owners sold the house. Their realtor was able to get her trapped and placed at the rescue.

“Awhile later, they discovered that she was diabetic and required insulin injections. She was subsequently placed in a Furry Friends’ foster home for some one-on-one care and socialization. When they went out of town, we cared for her at our home and soon decided to foster her fulltime. She is the sweetest, calmest cat who takes her insulin shots like a champ and never complains.

“Over time, Priscilla cautiously accepted socialization, slowly coming out of her shell and showing us her personality, but she still hadn’t had any adoption interest. After fostering her for a year, we decided that it wouldn’t be fair to uproot her life and expect her to re-acclimate to a new place and new people. At that point we realized that she had already found her forever home, and we officially made her part of our family.

“In 2024, my husband unexpectedly passed away. And as the dynamic in the house changed, so did Priscilla. No longer aloof, she became my little shadow, needing to be wherever I was and nestling into my side in bed at night. She even started sharing my office during the day, relaxing to the right of my keyboard. She has her own food bowl, water fountain and litter box there, and although she isn’t a lap cat, she enjoys having her head scratched and her ears massaged.

“I currently have four other cats and she’s the only one who gets along with them all because of her sweet and passive nature. A special needs senior foster is presently living with us and the two of them love each other and can often be found lying together on the couch. Not particularly interested in wand toys, Priscilla will sometimes chase the laser dot. Her favorite toys are ones she can bat at and toss around by herself. Bonus points if they have feathers or make noise! But she’s especially fond of gift bows. Consequently, there are six or more floating around the house at any given time.

“She’s quite the conversationalist when the mood strikes her, and she has one of the funniest little cat voices I’ve ever heard. Even the staff at the vet clinic comment on it when we’re there. She has big, beautiful orange/yellow eyes and a cute little white ‘paintbrush smudge’ on her nose. Her tabby patterns are completely symmetrical, which is quite unusual, while the markings on her front feet make her look like she’s wearing flip-flops, which always makes me smile. She just turned nine this month, and I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be many more years with her.” 

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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.