I won't get maudlin, but the story of Coco's adoption holds a couple of solid lessons.
Cyndi had wanted a black cat for some time. While waiting for her to finish at a store in our nearby shopping center, I saw, in the car's rear view mirror, a Humane Society volunteer carry a caged black cat toward the early Saturday morning pet adoption just down the way.
When Cyndi returned, we decided to see about adopting the black cat. She was sitting rather forlornly in her cage when we found her. In talking with the volunteer, we discovered she was a Manx kitten, i.e. she had no tail. The volunteer explained how this caused potential problems and made these cats more difficult to care for than the typical cat. She asked us whether we had other cats and if they went out doors. After answering a few more questions, we were told that we wouldn't be able to adopt this kitten.
We were surprised but went on our way. Later, we figured that beyond the fact we told them our two cats went out in the back yard, the fact we had gone over to the shopping center before getting all spruced up in the morning may have been a factor. Granted, we probably looked pretty scruffy, but I'd never known being unshaven to be grounds for being denied the opportunity to adopt a pet.
Running errands that afternoon, we decided to go back and see if the cat were still there. Sure enough she was, and now, nicely dressed, we got none of the questions we'd received in the morning. Instead, we were welcomed and within a very short time, were headed home with Coco.
That was nearly fourteen years ago. We talk often about how in a world where people increasingly look disheveled, the way we looked that Saturday really did matter in how we were judged. We also remind ourselves about all the joy we'd have missed in our lives if we'd have taken the first "no" as the final answer.
To close, here's a quirky moment from Sunday night. I was looking at a video I'd shot of Coco earlier this year when Clementine, our last remaining cat, hopped up on the desk, as she so frequently does. It's an unstaged, double video goodbye between the two of them. One in January and one today.
I'll admit this post was kind of light on strategy and innovation. Thanks for reading it anyway though, because I just had to write it - Mike Brown
