Suse Goericke, Bubs & Rosie
Growing up, I had virtually every pet other than cats. I liked them, but I didn’t get cats and they didn’t get me. Fast forward to being an adult, and I adopted two dogs and married a guy who was highly allergic to cats. Case closed, right? Well, in 2018 my husband and I went on a trip and when we came back, my mom—who had been dog and apartment-sitting for us—had taken pity on a stray grey-and-white tuxedo cat. The cat would boop noses with my dogs through the security gate and hang out in front of our building, waiting for us to feed him. We also made him a little shelter box that he valiantly defended against intruders. We asked around the neighborhood and had him scanned for a chip, but no one claimed him, so I found him an adopter. When it was time to get him inside our apartment and off to his new home, he instead snuggled up with my husband on the couch. From that point on, the two were inseparable; my husband wasn’t too allergic to him, and the cat stayed. We named him Bubs after the down-on-his-luck character on The Wire. He quickly became the prince of our household, wrestling and snuggling with the dogs, and fitting in perfectly. Bubs is just as food crazy as the dogs and sits by the door, greeting us when we come home. He’s really as much a dog as he is a cat. The cat part of him is that he’s extremely opinionated and constantly emitting sounds, often of displeasure that he gets food at specific times of the day and not any time he wants. He also loves knocking things on the floor, starting 2 hours before his dinner time— just in case we forget (which we never have, of course).
“In the fall of 2020, this cute, stocky tabby showed up. I named her Rosie. She was shy but hungry enough to eat with us every day.”
When the pandemic hit and I spent my days confined to the apartment, I fed and befriended a couple of feral cats in our yard. They became more social as the months went on, and I sort of fell into cat rescue. I rehomed those yard cats and became aware of just how many cats on my block needed homes and regular meals. In the fall of 2020, this cute, stocky tabby showed up. I named her Rosie. She was shy but hungry enough to eat with us every day. A couple of months later—after she’d gotten into a standoff with a raccoon—I decided it was time to bring her in and try to socialize her. The first month Rosie scratched me any time I got too close but showed some signs that she was housecat material. I’m not going to lie, there were moments when I almost gave up because she seemed so unhappy and scared. Then suddenly, one day she let me pet her. From then on, Rosie steadily warmed up—first to me and eventually to my husband. She also went from being mute to super chatty, especially around food. And when she started slow-blinking at me constantly, she won my heart. The plan was to adopt her out when she was fully socialized. But just like Bubs, she charmed her way into staying. She became so snuggly and attached to us that we couldn’t let her go.
These days, Rosie insists on her morning, afternoon, and evening snuggles. She’ll even push the dogs out of her way if that gets her into our laps, and she’ll quickly cuddle up to any visitor. She talks a lot, and her cute meow sounds like a mashup of a broken windshield wiper and Marge Simpson’s sisters. She is a ferocious hunter and will pounce on her mouse and soccer ball toys, yowling with pride. I often wonder how tough she had to be to survive out in the cold. She’s a testament to what resiliency, patience, and love can do for a semi-feral cat. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more gratitude and adoration from a pet than I have from Rosie.
Bubs and Rosie aren’t close, but they tolerate each other and occasionally loaf up together on the heating pad or tag team to steal food scraps from the sink. I swear we feed them enough, but they never lost their insecurity around food. They coexist well with our dogs and bring calm and goofiness to our home. We count ourselves lucky every day that they found us.
Suse is originally from Germany and works at Squarespace. In her spare time, she rescues and cares for many cats in her Crown Heights neighborhood via @centralbrooklyncats.