We all seem to know that one person who keeps smiling through the most difficult of challenges, who manages to maintain an optimistic outlook no matter what life brings. But can you say that you know an animal who faces life with the same positive attitude? Well, now you can.
Friendly is an adorable tabby who truly lives up to his name. Friendly’s early life was tragic. In July of 2011, at the age of only 5 weeks, he was found with his siblings in a pile of rubble next to a trailer behind a burned-down home in South Jersey. The kittens’ mother was never located. Luckily, the person who found Friendly was a volunteer with Furrever Friends Rescue and Volunteers, a no-kill feline rescue, and he and his siblings were rescued and then fostered together until they were old enough to be adopted.
Initially fearful, the shy kittens hissed and scratched, but with the kindness and patience of their foster family they eventually came around and learned to love and accept human attention. Friendly, who got his name because he was the most outgoing of his litter, was eventually adopted with his brother by a caring woman who showered the brothers with love and affection.
However, when she passed away in October 2012, her family kept Friendly’s brother, but dumped sweet Friendly alone at a high-kill shelter. Fortunately, the family had thought to give the shelter Friendly’s paperwork. When shelter personnel realized that Friendly had been a Furrever Friends kitty, they immediately contacted FFRV, and a volunteer went to pick him up.
Friendly was initially anxious when he entered foster care over a year ago. He did not like to be left alone, as he associated that with being abandoned again, and he clung to his foster mom’s leg whenever she tried to leave the room. A large boy who loves to explore and give and receive affection, Friendly does not like being in a cage and, thus, he does not show well at Furrever Friends’ PetSmart Adoption Center, where the kitties spend time in their “cubbies” when volunteers aren’t present to play with them. 
Friendly is thriving in foster care, but he longs for a home of his own, where he can cuddle, run, jump, and play with his forever people. Friendly’s foster mom reports that his favorite game to play is ‘jump for the feather toy.’ Once Friendly gets the toy away from you, he picks it up, walks away with it, drops it to the floor and waits for you to dangle it in the air for him again. He usually gets pretty cuddly after a few rounds of this game, and he just plops on the floor, exposes his belly, and makes ‘air biscuits’ while he waits for you to pet him. And if that’s not enough to win you over, he doesn’t even mind if you put clothes on him!
This loving boy is up to date on all of his vaccinations, is neutered, and has no medical issues. To learn more about Friendly, or to adopt him or any of the wonderful rescued and waiting cats of Furrever Friends, please visit their website (www.ffrv.org) and submit an application.
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Furrever Friends Rescue and Volunteers, Inc is an all-volunteer no-kill feline rescue organization in New Jersey, striving to save the lives of homeless cats by: providing safe, loving care in private homes until a furrever family can be found; spaying/neutering and vaccinating pets prior to adoption to control over population; carefully screening adopters; funding emergency medical care to injured or abused animals through “Geronimo’s Fund”; and showcasing homeless animals at various venues to help them find a home, including at their PetSmart Adoption Center in Deptford, NJ.
