Meet Paloma.

She’s like the bothered teenager that is forced to babysit her trifling adolescent brother Nico. She doesn’t like being picked up, but wants to constantly cuddle—on her terms, of course! Her favorite spot is under my chin and across my neck (my breathing be damned!). She doesn’t like to go too long without pets. I get about a meow a month out of her, but her purr sounds like a Harley! Oh, and those eyes! When I saw them I was mesmerized and knew she had to come home with me!

I adopted Nico and Paloma from the Chittenden County Humane Society a few years. They were rescued as part of a colony of about 30 cats discovered in one home in Alburgh. They were all completely neglected, malnourished, riddled with fleas and ear mites, and some were rather sick with respiratory issues, mange, ringworm, etc. They were dispersed among local shelters. You’d never know now how bumpy their little lives began.

- Jennifer Diaz, Executive Assistant to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs