A woman has been praised for the extra lengths she went to so her cat felt comfortable in his new home.
Christine, 57, lives in Philadelphia, her hometown, where she recently returned after 29 years away—in different cities from New York and Los Angeles, to foreign countries Brazil and Peru.
Now that she’s home, Christine is on a totally new adventure: trying to make her cat comfortable in her small city apartment, after she took him in from a previous owner who was no longer able to care for him.
“Acquiring Blue was definitely more work than I had anticipated, but it has been totally worth it,” Christine told Newsweek. And now the story of how she helped Blue to be as happy as possible in her home has touched the hearts of animal lovers.
In a Threads post to her account @christine_the_pragmatist on December 1, Christine said that Blue the tabby has been living with her for five months, in a loft apartment where she slept on the top of a tall ladder. But Blue, unable to reach her up the ladder, would “meow all night,” leading her to getting “very little rest.”
Christine, who asked to use her first name only, said that, at one point, she even bought a small double mattress so she could sleep on the floor with Blue while she “figured out a good solution.”
And so, Christine took things into her own hands, with the help of a friend who was a DIY expert—to build a ramp for Blue to come cuddle whenever he wanted.
“Constructing anything is not my forte, but I craved sleep, so I was extremely motivated,” Christine said in her viral story. And so, she got to work, buying a wood board, cutting up an old rug, and gluing it to the wood, allowing Blue to stroll happily up the ramp whenever he wanted.
There was one major problem, though—”the board was about 4 inches too long, and I couldn’t close my closet door.”
Christine suffered on with a constantly open closet for a month, not wanting to go through the whole rigmarole again. But, eventually, she bundled the huge board back into her car, and took it to Home Depot to get a couple of inches sawed off—only to be told that their saw was broken, and she would have to go to a different branch.
Christine dragged the board back to her car, and headed to the next-closest store. At first, she was told she couldn’t cut it with the carpet on, but with the help of a friendly sales assistant, managed to remove it and cut off the extra inches, before driving home.
“Fortunately, I made it back without getting stopped by the police. I’m sure the ramp was considered a hazard since it was hanging out my passenger side window,” Christine said.
When she got home, the work wasn’t done: Christine had to reattach the carpet and let the glue dry overnight.
But it was worth it, as she shared a video of Blue happily climbing up the ramp and into her bed, this time with her closet door closed.
She wrote: “Love is a noun, but it’s also a verb. When Blue came to live with me, I wasn’t sure how it would go. But now we are bonded to one another, and it occurred to me that this is what human relationships should be—stretching yourself in an uncomfortable manner and having your partner do the same.
“Of course, Blue is a cat, not a human, but we love and appreciate each other. I don’t know if I’ll ever have this type of unspoken connection with another person, but it would be amazing if everyone could experience this selfless type of love.”
Christine said that Blue “loves” having access to the loft now, as it is “like a studio within a studio.”
“He spends a lot of time up there and he appears to enjoy running up and down the ramp,” she added—a big change from the scratch marks he left on the frame when trying to climb up to her before the ramp was there.
Threads users were deeply moved, with one writing: “Blue is so fortunate to have you and you are fortunate to have Blue. I love the lengths you went to meet Blue’s needs.”
“I love this story and your commitment to this beautiful cat,” another said, as a third posted: “Go Blue, and excellent job kitty mamma!”
“You love Blue and he clearly loved you too, wanting to be near you and in your space,” one viewer said—while another summed it up: “What a beautiful story of love. Blue is lucky to have you.”
Reacting to the massive response to her post, Christine admitted to feeling “very honored that people read my work and leave comments—and that includes the negative ones as well.”
“If someone takes the time to read and write a comment, that’s a good thing,” the cat owner added.
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