I can offer a first hand account of how "rescue pets," four cats in the case of my household continues to payoff with happiness, entertainment, and love.
I cannot guarantee it as an across-the-board trait for all rescue pets, but each one of ours is affectionate and likes attention. The one we have had the longest is Pippa, a black cat who came to our home in the late summer of 2013. My initial reaction was based on superstition. I did not want a black cat because of the "bad luck" stigma. Even though at the time I likely had no say in the matter, I did attempt to invoke a baseball related contingent for Pippa to remain. My favorite baseball team is the Cleveland Indians and at the time they were in a race to make the playoffs for the first time in six years. I said if they started losing.. Pippa had to go. Well they won the first series they played with Pippa in the house so she got to stay.
When we moved to Delmarva to help alleviate the stress of starting in a new school for our two sons, we promised them we would get another cat. That is how we got Finn.
Our third cat was part of a Clear The Shelters foster program in December of 2018. He actually was one of the pets shown on Delmarva Life's Pet Connect. At the time his name was Poof. Poof was supposed to be with us for only two weeks so as to give the Brandywine Valley SPCA Georgetown campus a break over the holidays. After a few days, we all fell in love with this cat and in order to "seal the deal" my wife said we can call him Baker Meowfield after the quarterback of my favorite NFL team, the Cleveland Browns and Baker Mayfield.
The newest addition to our home is the result of the Pandemic. During those early days in 2020, the BVSPCA had another foster program due to the uncertainty of lockdowns and restrictions. We ended up with O'Malley who was not in good shape. He had fur missing and had other medical issues. The moment he was brought into the house, my oldest son said there was no way we could bring him back to the shelter because nobody would adopt him in the shape that he was in. Since being in our home, O'Malley's health has greatly improved and his fur has grown back in those missing places.
Which probably goes to show that our family is probably a poster child for Foster Failures.
