Remember all those mentions of special announcements and a new member of our team? Here he is! Meet Steve, the boy we fell in love with at our local shelter. We think he’s a Russian Blue mixed with Domestic Short Hair, but we don’t have a way of knowing for certain.

He has faint stripes on his tail and legs, which we didn’t even notice until we settled at home. I thought I was finally done with having tabby cats, but it seems like there’s no going back once you’ve had three tabbies!

If his paws look a little stubby, it’s because they are. His previous owners had him declawed. We abhor declawing of animals, even if it means saving our jeans from his claws when he wants up, but thankfully Steve’s declawing didn’t leave him with any long-term issues. The biggest issue we’ve had so far is that he occasionally falls from a place he’s inspecting, since he doesn’t have his claws to help hook himself into place.

It was total luck that we found him, since he wasn’t even up for proper adoption yet. Zach and I went to the shelter to check out a completely different cat, but the staff allowed us into the receiving area to look at this boy. He had been surrendered two days prior, so he was understandably shy. It was a pretty immediate switch into loving purrs, though, and he absolutely melted our hearts.

Two days later, we brought him home!

He and Jasmine have issues getting along, since he’s an energetic 7-month-old that’s bigger than her, but Zach and I have been doing our utmost to help them become friends (or at least able to tolerate each other).

His interests are rather simple: eat all the human food he can get, even if it means attempting to climb an arm; get into the trashcan for reasons unknown; stalk Jasmine in hopes of her playing with him; purr in a human’s lap in the hopes that he’ll get some human food; sleep near whichever human is closer to a comfy bed; and sprint around in the middle of the night like a madman, chasing after plastic that he pulls down from desks, tables, or out of cabinets.