In the midst of grief and loss, a special new companionship emerged between Louise Emin and a cat named Sassafrat.
In May of this year, Louise faced the devastating loss of her husband, Lloyd. Just three months earlier, Louise and her husband had experienced the passing of their cat. Louise had wanted to adopt another cat, but her husband didn’t share this wish.
On the morning of Lloyd’s passing, while gathered with two of her children, a conversation about cats led them to the Yarmouth SPCA. It was there that Louise met Sassafrat, a 9-year-old cat who would soon become her closest companion.
Louise was looking for an older cat, and Sassafrat stood out to her the second she laid eyes on her. “She took to me almost immediately at the shelter, and I knew I wasn’t leaving without her,” she says.
Sassafrat had wound up at the SPCA a month earlier when her owner passed away, and Louise feels like they were meant to find each other that day. “It’s like she was made for me,” she says.
Sassafrat was adopted and went home the same day, and she had no trouble adjusting to her new life with Louise. “When we first brought her home, we opened the door to her carrier and she walked out and acted like she had always been here. She wasn’t nervous at all,” says Louise.
Since her adoption, Sassafrat has been filling Louise’s home with love and they have become the best of friends.
“She loves to snuggle. She sits on my lap which is what I had hoped for – a lap cat – and she sleeps with me at night at the foot of the bed. She lays down when I do and gets up when I get up. She follows me everywhere I go and she just loves attention,” says Louise. “When I leave the house and come back, she’ll walk circles around me and meow at me to welcome me back.”
Sassafrat is just as friendly with everyone else she meets too. When someone comes through the door of the house, she always jumps up to go greet them and she loves to be around people. She has even gotten into some mischief in her new home.
“She loves to look out the window and she keeps thinking she should be allowed to go outdoors, but we won’t let her! Sometimes she’ll try to make a run for it,” Louise laughs. “And when you pet her back, her butt goes in the air and we call her “elevator butt.”
Having Sassafrat around has helped Louise get through an extremely difficult time after the loss of her husband and has helped to fill the void in her heart and home. “She’s the greatest company and she has made my house all the better. It would be pretty quiet and dull without her. She’s the most special little cat,” she says.
This pair found each other at the right time, and it was exactly what they both needed. They helped each other heal from loss. Sometimes a sweet little shelter animal can become the best friend of all.