Our sweet cat Troela

Thijs and Troela share a cuddle

We adopted our sweet cat Troela about 8 years ago. When we moved into an apartment 8 years ago she was hanging around in our small yard and our neighbors told us: Yeah, she comes with the apartment, didn't the previous tenant tell you? Well... No! But we'd love to have a cat! We called her Troela, which is a sweet nickname for a fussy woman in Dutch. Troela is a small cat and she misses her tail. We don't know what happened to her tail, she has a little stump, but she doesn't seem bothered by it. At first Troela was very scared of humans, but liked to hang out at about 20 ft distance when we were outside. Then, the 20 ft became 10, and then 3, and after about 2 years she let us pet her. We were very happy and proud Troela was becoming so much friendlier.

When we moved to Half Moon Bay we took Troela with us, which was a bit risky because as an outside cat we didn't know if she would stick around our new house. So we also took her favorite Y
uca tree so she could lay in her favorite spot. And our neighbor made her a special cat house in the shape of a Dutch windmill. And Troela liked her new back yard! And she became friendlier still. At some point I put her on my lap while I was sitting on the ground. And you could see her think:"This is so nice! Why didn't I figure this out years ago!" Now, whenever we sit outside, Troela comes for cuddles and sit on our laps. Our friends reserve some "Troela time" when they come and stay to hang out with her. She is now also friendly with kids, which took a little while because kids make more sudden movements. But she now knows that kids' cuddles are also really nice. We feel like proud parents to see what a sweet and funny cat she has become since we met her!