Pet's Age
2

City
Charlotte

State
North Carolina

Pet's Story
Mocha's story started off sad but has a happy ending. There is a stray cat, Shadow, I have been feeding every day for a couple of years now, and around Christmas of 2022 I noticed there were two cats on my front porch eating...I believe Mocha is the stray's kitten. She was tiny and starving, and given the temperature and her size I was worried about her surviving the winter.

I took her in, and she was also obviously sick. She was less than three pounds (at one point less than two!) and her labs indicated she was anemic, and she couldn't keep on weight. She didn't have much interest in doing anything and was very lethargic. It turned out she had a severe form of stomatitis and her body was having an immune response to her teeth - basically, her body thought her teeth were intruders and was rejecting them.

After unsuccessfully trying to treat it conservatively and running a few more tests, I made the decision to have surgery and have all of her teeth removed and...she is a totally different cat. She transformed almost overnight. She was up to six pounds in her post-op appointment, and now is closer to 8 or 9 pounds (having now grown larger than my 6 year old cat, Ember!).

Mocha is spunky, feisty, and loves to squeak (when she tries to meow). She loves Ember and my 15 year old cat, Mistral (though she's still not sure about 7 year old Whisper and 8 year old Luna. And yes, if you're counting along at home, I have 5 cats, plus the stray, Shadow). And despite not having her teeth, she still loves to eat. And given her energy and the amount of zoomies she does, she needs the calories! She is also very much a sweetheart and loves getting her head scritches.

This picture sums up Mocha perfectly. She is smol but mighty. She is MOCHA. Hear her RAWR.

Pet's Best Personality Trait
All of them. She is spunky. Feisty. Sweet. Squeaky.

Pet's Favorite Thing To Do
Zoomies. Eat. Squeak. Antagonize Ember. Sunbathe.