By Joanie Morgan

As I sit here with my two adoring cats I realize how blessed I am to have them in my life.

My husband and I have an 18-year-old Tuxedo cat named Maggie May and a Red Tabby named Opie. I knew Opie was coming into my life before I actually got him at the Dumb Friends League. I named him before I got him. That was an inner knowing for an animal coming into my life. I kept looking at various shelters before going to the Dumb Friends League. I looked at all the different places they had kittens and thought nope! He is not here. Then, one of the volunteers asked if I had seen the glass enclosure with kittens in it. I hadn’t. Lo and behold, at the very back was a little Red Tabby sound asleep. I asked to spend time with him and needless to say, he went home with me. When I got home with him my husband looked at his feet and said: “he’s going to be a big cat”. And he is! He grew very quickly and is now about 13 pounds and eventually grew into his big feet! He has been with us for 11 years. He is my office buddy. He is sound asleep next to me as I write this post. Every once in a while I feel a little tap, tap on my arm as he is telling me I’m still here with you.

Our Tuxedo cat, Maggie, has been with us our entire 18-year marriage. For years, my husband would say “we have two cats too many”. Boy, has he ever changed his tune! He adores our little fur babies as much as I do! Especially Maggie. I walk in the living room and there she is, sitting on his lap. He says they watch football together. She has 100% stolen his heart. She gets excited when he comes home and waits at the door for him. I can tell once he sees her adoring little face it melts the stress of the day away. I never thought he’d not only like but love cats. They steal your heart!

I’m a Professional Pet Sitter. I could say I came across taking care of animals by accident. Except that there are no accidents. I started a business as a Personal Assistant and shortly thereafter, someone asked me to take care of their dogs when they went on vacation. I thought sure, why not? Five years later I am still taking care of dogs and cats. I fall in love with almost every animal I take care of. Each and every one of them has their own unique and loving traits. I can be having a bad day and show up to take care of one of the animals and right off the bat I feel better and find myself smiling. They have such cute antics and most are very glad to see me. I have lots of clients who travel frequently and I get to take care of their fur babies while they are gone. I’ve taken care of many animals so many times I feel like they are all my animals! And I think they think I am their second owner. There have been four animals I’ve taken care of who had to be put down. Every time is very hard for me and of course their owners. Recently, I had a woman who I’ve gotten to know very well cry on my shoulder as she and her husband were having their Bison put down the next week. That is the hard part of my job. However, the joy they give me is totally worth it just as it is with my own animals.

I’d like to share this with you all. Find a job that brings you joy and the money will become the least important thing. I learned that lesson from Jan Shaw, the creator of this website. Jan is an amazing life coach who I recommend to anyone who may be having personal or financial issues. She has an intuitive ability to know exactly how to help you!

And here’s to all the wonderful people who adopt shelter and abused animals. They deserve your love.