I took Step 1 on Tuesday (so unbelievably glad to be done with that) and to destress afterwards I walked over to the animal shelter where I got Kelsay Olivia. One of the people asked me if I was familiar with them and as soon as I said yeah, I'd adopted my cat there 5 or 6 years ago, an employee who'd been there when it happened turned around and shouted out "oh my god, OLIVIA!"
I always feel a little silly going full cat dad when I know they see so many cats come and go but she remembered exactly how it happened, which room KO was in, everything. I used to stop by every so often but she had moved to a different location and I'd gone back to school so I wasn't around as much and she said she missed getting to hear updates <3
Apparently the shelter retired the name Olivia after her since she was such an unhappy little head case and had such a hard time finding her person, but she's also one of their shining examples of a cat choosing its owner, so. I think things turned out alright.
(My girl had been at the shelter for a really long time, she was 6 or 7 years old with big old bald patches and a cone because of her allergies so a bit of a hard sell. I wasn't even allowed to have a cat where I was living so I was just there getting my cat fix, as was my habit - I'd said hi to everyone in that cat room and sat down on the windowsill when KO climbed out of a little covered bed in the corner, looked flat terrified for a good 5-10 seconds, then trotted over, made it clear she wanted to be in my lap, and stayed there for an hour and fifteen minutes. During which time everyone working there stopped in to tell me that they'd never seen that cat leave her corner for anyone, they'd never seen that cat on anyone's lap and I was taking her home, right? Which of course I wasn't, but then yeah, I was, because within two days I'd convinced my landlady and they'd processed my application in record time and I even took off work early so she wouldn't have to wait another night in the shelter not knowing I was coming back for her.)