Stray Cat Follows Person Home — And Decides She's Never Leaving
There was just ONE big problem ...
Connor Manning was heading home one night, feeling down after going through a breakup, when a little cat appeared. Manning could see that the cat had probably been living on the streets for some time, as she was incredibly skinny, dirty and flea-ridden. Manning bent down to say hi, and surprisingly, the sweet stray cat hopped into Manning's lap and refused to leave.
“After about five minutes, I started getting up to head home and she was SUPER scared,” Manning told The Dodo. “So I crouched down and she ran right over to me again. And we repeated this process for about four blocks until we were on my porch.”
The cat followed Manning all the way home, and came inside to explore the house for a bit …
… before deciding she was a little too nervous to hang out inside, and took up residence on Manning’s porch instead. Manning documented these first few hours with the cat on Twitter, much to the delight of everyone who saw the adorable tweets.
Manning had plans to go over to a friend’s house for a bit, and put out a bed and some water for the cat — later named Socks — on the front porch, secretly hoping she might stay.
When Manning got home, Socks wasn’t there anymore …
… but after about an hour, Manning heard a very soft noise coming from outside.
“I heard the tiniest meows from my door and she came back and I nearly died it was so cute,” Manning said.
While Socks had been a little nervous at first, it seemed that she had chosen Manning as her human, and once she was inside the house again, she refused to leave — just like when they first met and she refused to leave Manning’s lap.
Socks settled into Manning’s home right away, and seemed super happy that after six months of living on the streets she had finally found a safe place to stay. Socks seemed more than prepared to live with Manning for the rest of her life — but there was one small issue that Manning still had to deal with.
“I'm, like, super allergic to cats,” Manning said. “My family had to get rid of one when I was little because of it. Driving home from our first vet trip, my throat started to close up, so at that point for my own safety I decided I'd give her to someone else.”
Manning began to search for someone else to adopt Socks …
… but Socks wasn’t having it. She had chosen her home and was determined to stay, and after a while Manning realized that, despite the allergies, it would be impossible to part with the extremely loving cat.
“I was in love,” Manning said. “After a few days of having allergy medicine in my system, I started feeling fine! So, she was home!”
Manning decided to do whatever it took to keep Socks around, and officially adopted her.
It’s now been a little over two months since Socks followed Manning home, and the pair couldn’t be happier with their new life together. Socks now gets scared whenever the door of her new home opens, maybe because she’s afraid of going back to her life on the streets — but lucky for her, that’s never going to happen.
“She's a little sweetie, loves meeting new people and [is] full of energy,” Manning said. “Watching her go from a bone-thin lethargic baby covered in fleas into this little pounce machine has been so rewarding.”