Lore
Here are some screenshots from the long lost page where I first found my special, perfect boy. I wish I'd archived the website so that I could go back and save the bio they wrote for him... Nevertheless, the pictures were enough to captivate me. He was so crusty. His name was so, so stupid. From memory, the bio said he was an INTP and a Slytherin. I have no way of knowing how they tested him for that.
I found Dean through Petfinder without actually wanting to adopt a cat. In graduate school, my program had a built in year of residency/on the job training that took place in three ten-week chunks. For the final third of my time on rotation, I was in my new home of Indianapolis, living on the south side in a rented bedroom in someone's house. The bedroom was fishing themed (like, wallpaper, tackle table, pole stand, the works) and the bed was a very sweaty memory foam. It was not a comfortable time, and I was pretty miserable for a number of reasons. Grad school is just like that, I think! To alleviate my sadness I turned to the internet, knowing I could source free cute pictures of cats that all had the dumbest names in the world. And Petfinder.com delivered.
Charitably, I was obsessed with Dean. I told the people who would become my coworkers about him, how crusty he was, how big his little eyes were, how much I loved him. When I graduated, moved, and had my month of rest and adjustment before I started work, I came to realize something important. My dream didn't have to stay a dream.
Dean was still available for adoption. I reached out, and was approved for a foster-to-adopt program to see if he and I were a good fit. Dean had been fostered multiple times previously after being captured from the streets and spayed. His current foster mother at the time brought him to me on anxiety medication due to his inability to be around any other cats at any time ever... According to her, he was kind of on the spectrum, so I knew we'd get along very, very well.
He arrived home on May 29, 2021. Dean was about four when I took him in, and he fucking hated me. As soon as his foster mother (a very kind woman who sent me more baby pictures) left he spent about three days hiding under a chair in my living room, refusing to come out. I had to put food and water under there to make sure he didn't die. A day or two after that, he let me see him. The next day, I touched him. And soon, he was jumping up on the couch to sit next to me.
He quickly found his favorite spot in that apartment, and became very needy and very loving. He's the best cat in the entire god damn world as far as I'm concerned.
Here are the other early Dean photos as provided by his previous foster... He's still got that vacant, brainless stare in his big stupid eyes.