Beloved Charlie

Working at the shelter, you know not to get attached.
You know precisely what you are getting into.
You know that you could rehabilitate a cat and cuddle it and feed it from the palm of your hand and then have it adopted by someone.
Or the animal could just....change who they were...
I know from experience that the transition from the quiet hospital to the noisy adoption room is like from womb to Earth for a newborn baby.
But, they get over their simple stages of laying in their litter box and then slowly making their way to laying front in center in front of people.
This cat....literally broke my heart.

He started off hiding from people in the bottom cage in the corner.
I used to come in everyday and play with him, change his litter, give him more food if he needed it, and brush him as well as continuously check the small healing wound on his back.
Well, one day, he had started sneezing up blood, the first sign of Upper Respiratory (which animals in shelters get often because people do not wash their hands after touching each animal).
I took him back into the sick room and spent three weeks going into the adoption room, tending to the cats there and then spending the rest of my 1.5 hours nurturing the sick ones and spending special amounts of time with Charlie.
I didn't want to, but I fell in love with this cat.
He laid in my lap, took short naps, played with me, etc.
I bonded with him.
One day a cat pretty much aggressively attacked me, unprovoked, and I was extremely upset.
Not about being attacked, but about putting the cat in quarantine.
State law dictates that they be held in quarantine for 10 days, though.
Anyways, I was bawling my eyes out and I was so embarrassed.
I was avoiding EVERYONE.
No other volunteer ever goes back to the sick room, so I could be alone.
I went into the sick room, sat in Charlie's cage with him, and cuddled with him.
He just...wouldn't let me cry.
If he saw a tear or heard me sniffle he would headbutt my face and give a tiny cry.
After that, I knew I was just absolutely in love with him.
After another week, he was back in adoptions but back in his litter box.
After a few days, he was headbutting the cage and meowing.
Weeks went by and he wasn't adopted.
I physically blocked all information from leaking out to the vet techs.
Being so young, we could have sent him to Petsmart since he had been with us so long but I made sure no one told them.
He did not transition well.
One day, I went in, opened his cage to pet him, and he leaped out, onto my shoulder, and onto the floor.
He bolted.
He was not a skittish cat.
Ever.
After that, I didn't go back to him.
I didn't go in to volunteer for a week and a half.
I was depressed.
When I came back, I tracked his serial number to find someone had adopted him 3 days before I came in.
And that was the last I ever heard of him.

Sorry for the long story, but he was my passion for months.
I haven't gotten attached to a cat like that ever again.
And if the owner of Charlie ever sees this (which I doubt they ever will), I want them to know how much this cat meant to me and I hope he means a lot to them, too.

***EDIT: I met Charlie's owner, she actually volunteer's with me! And she is very happy to know that I cared so much for him. I'm happy to know that he has got a great home : )

Charlie is not available for adoption.
Please visit your local shelter or follow Pinellas County Animal Services on their FaceBook page for more cats and dogs. Nightly walk-throughs of both areas are done and uploaded daily.