Last summer, Courtney Bailey opened her front door to get the mail and found an unfamiliar black-and-white cat staring at her. Bailey, who already had three cats, barely managed to say hello when the cat marched into the house, straight to a litter box, and used it like he owned it.
“I was stunned,” Bailey told The Dodo. “Truthfully, I didn’t know what to do. Put him back outside?”
She decided to keep the cat in the garage while she and her partner debated their next move. Strays had come around before, but none as friendly or as bold as this guy. They agreed the cat must belong to someone. He could stay while they searched for his family.
They had no idea this friendly cat was about to change their lives.
“We went to check on him later … he was curled up in our cats’ old bed,” Bailey said. “He’d made himself right at home.” Still committed to finding his people, they brought him inside to meet their cats.
Two of them, Tater Swift and Saint Dikolas, were 9-month-old brothers. Dikolas wrestles, runs and wreaks havoc. Tater is a 16-pound clumsy “marshmallow” of a cat, who takes things slowly. “Tater used to pine and search for Dikolas,” Bailey said. “Dikolas hates being held and has never allowed his brother a snuggle.”
Their third cat, Reese’s Pieces, is a “grumpy old lady,” who “rules the roost.” Bailey worried how the outgoing new cat would fit into this mix. Almost instantly, she got her answer.
Dikolas and Reese eyed the new cat with curiosity, then seemingly shrugged and accepted him without much fuss. “It was like he had an immediate stamp of approval to live here,” Bailey said.
But something deeper stirred in Tater.
“Tater Swift and [this cat] took one look at each other and fell in love,” Bailey said. “He was immediately enamored with Tater … following him everywhere.”
Bailey and her partner watched as an undeniable bond grew between the cats. They started calling the new guy Pongo. If Tater flopped on the floor, Pongo immediately sidled up for a cuddle. The two played together gently, in a way Dikolas never did with Tater.
“It was almost like Pongo was made for Tater,” Bailey said.
While romance blossomed, she and her partner continued searching for Pongo’s family, to no avail. A vet visit revealed he was about 5 months old. “We had him checked for a chip,” Bailey said. “We posted flyers and Facebook notices everywhere.”
At home, Pongo and Tater developed a routine, part of which included Pongo sitting on Tater like a jetpack. “Some of the best ‘jetpack’ moments are when Tater has already squeezed into a box or basket and Pongo tries so hard to make himself fit too,” Bailey said.
Weeks into Pongo’s stay, someone else expressed interest in adopting him. The thought of separating Pongo and Tater broke Bailey’s heart.
“They spend their whole day finding new ways to hug,” Bailey said, adding that Dikolas and Reese simply let the “boyfriends” be. “Pongo and Tater are in their own world and everyone else is third-wheeling.”
She and her partner finally realized Pongo was definitively part of their family.
Though they may not ever know what Pongo’s life was like before he arrived on their doorstep, they can’t imagine their life without him now. It’s clear that Pongo chose them to be his family and knew, before they did, that once he crossed that threshold into their home, he was never leaving.
A year after he first showed up, Pongo and Tater are still inseparable.
“It was absolutely love at first sight,” Bailey said. “They’ve been wrapped into each other’s arms ever since.”
