Now I’ve always been an animal lover my whole life. I’ve always had pets at home and I just have a weak spot in my heart for animals, so coming to Korea and leaving my kitty at home was pretty hard. I missed having that presence in my life and having that constant loving companion.


Before even coming to Korea I had looked into volunteering at an animal shelter or fostering while I was here. I had read that there was both a huge stray and rescue population of dogs and cats. The laws here in Korea can be a bit behind the time and it wasn’t long ago that if a neighbor complained about your dog barking too much, you’d have to legally get rid of it. Not to mention people get animals and decide they are too big for the apartment.

Needless to say, there are a lot of animals in need of homes here and cats are far less popular than dogs, making it even harder to find homes for them.

So in February I decided I was ready to bring a new buddy into my life. Gabi and I both decided we would become foster moms and headed out to Nabiya Cat Shelter, a wonderful nonprofit organization that’s sole purpose is helping cats and finding homes for them.

We got there and were welcomed in by one of the volunteers. She let us look around to pick out a cat to foster. Now I had been looking at several cats but one stood out to me. Not only was he smart (I watched him use his teeth to grip the rim and remove a metal lid off a food canister) but he was also twice the size of all the other cats. The girl told me that his owner had gotten cancer and the family had to get rid of him. She also told me that it was difficult find a place for him because most people thought he was too big for his apartment (Which doesn’t surprise me, he could probably eat half the “dogs” I see here in Korea).

I was still looking around a bit when I bent over to pet the oversized ball of sunshine. It was then that he got up on his hind legs, wrapped his arms around my neck and nuzzled his face under my chin.

That did it right there. I didn’t need to pick a cat because a cat had been the one to pick me!


But after we got used to each other (and a couple of late night squirts from a water gun) we quickly became best buds.
I am now happy to say that I am in the process of going from a foster mom to an adoptive mom. With my looming return date back to America, the thought of leaving Sunny behind was just too much to bear.



                                           K.C.