Bf choked on his beer when I told him I was considering "Van Gogh" for his name, even though I prefaced it by saying I know it's a little dark. I do like his paintings, and impressionism in general, but the ears were the main reason. They're probably deformed from old hematomas, and he's more prone to ear infections but otherwise they don't bother him. It's just cauliflower ears.

I told myself if I adopted a cat, it would be special needs/senior/harder to adopt, and I think I hit all 3 of those with him. He's a 15 year old Snowshoe cat (I didn't realize he was probably purebred until I met him, the photo online only showed his face and his pupils were more dilated, he looked gray tabby/white). He is the sweetest boy, all he wants is love. I guess his previous owner was leaving a bad relationship, he was the exs cat but the ex was living in a car...and I'm a sucker and didn't want him to have to live in a shelter for months. He needs some good care...right now he's underweight and has very little muscle mass in his hind legs, and he's arthritic. They gave me a bag of dry Rx kidney food at the shelter, and once I saw his records I almost lol'ed because his BUN is barely elevated and his creatinine and phosphorus are normal. He does not need to eat kidney food (which is good because it isn't well liked)...he just needs good quality wet food to keep him hydrated and help him gain some muscle. He's already eating that pretty well and the kidney food has remained untouched. The records also mentioned a heart murmur which wasn't disclosed, I'm not thrilled about that but I'll deal. I got a pet insurance policy that will cover an echocardiogram and arthritis medication as long as they don't find out those are pre existing (I can omit that page of the records when I send them to the insurance company...not the most ethical thing ever but that's how I can get coverage without paying $200 / month).