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In February 2014, our 17 year old minpin, Luna, passed away. My mom and I thought we wouldn't have another furry daughter/son, but on March 10, I learned about an adoption campaign with a local animal rescue foundation and headed over just to check it out. 

For a reason I still don't understand, I asked if I could see the adult cats. We'd never had a cat in our lives before - we considered ourselves "dog people". But then I met Katiuska.

She was laying on a chair and when I stepped close to her, she looked at me, stretched up and jumped on my lap, and stayed there. I knew she had to go home with me. When I asked about Katiuska's past, I was told she was about a year old and was rescued pregnant from the streets, completely famished and with a skin fungus that made her hair fall off.

Thankfully, she gave birth at the shelter and her babies were fine, but she developed a very serious antibiotic-resistant mastitis and barely made it. She was actually still recovering when I met her. The vet told me, "She has an amazing will to keep living. An infection that severe could had killed her, but here she is."

When I took Katiuska to her new home, she was a skinny cat with three hairs on her, shy as a squirrel, and afraid of her own shadow. She grew out of all those fears,  though, and today she's what Jackson Galaxy calls "a mojito cat": Visitors come by and Katiuska is the first one at the door, she adores snuggling and being pet (especially by friendly visitors), she can't stay away from the TV, and she loves chasing lizards and the occasional fly.

In a way, Katiuska helped mom and me with the grief of losing Luna, and we admire her strength for holding onto life, as if she knew something better was coming for her. A few weeks after I adopted her, I told her vet, "Katiuska is my little white fur angel."

Story submitted by Ana Maria Mejia from Medellin, Colombia.

This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Share your very own rescue story here!