My Hero, Mr. Park

Despite having a cat of my own back in Canada, I had always wanted to add to my family. After visiting Asan shelter and scoping out the ARK page, I fell in love with Shanti (now Solène) immediately.

It turned out, the feeling was not mutual. But more on that in a minute.

It took little convincing to get my friend Jordan to come help me retrieve her and that's how I found myself in a taxi, with an empty carrier, headed to Asan Shelter.

Mr. Park was a gracious host and went out to lend us a hand with getting Shanti into the carrier.

I've been to a few shelters and my own cat back home doesn't care much for carriers. It's not surprising that a few cats took off when they saw us coming. Shanti though took it to Spiderman levels of epicness.

The moment she realized we were heading for her, she took off. She cornered herself in the pen with all the climbers and whatnot, but she was not giving up without a fight. I can't imagine what she thought was happening, but clearly she was convinced it was nowhere good. At one point, in her frenzy, she managed to conk her beautiful pink nose on the floor, but like a champ, Shanti shook it off and kept running.

She scaled the walls before finally hunkering down in a wood box near the floor. Mr. Park had his thickest gloves on but even that wasn't enough to keep her teeth from breaking a bit of skin. Shanti finally realized this was the best hiding place and took off again. By now, she was tired and had cornered herself onto a small platform.

And there it was, I saw Mr. Park perform a miracle.

He crawled over to her and began to speak ever so soothingly to her, letting his words wash over her fur as she fought to catch her breath. Within 5 minutes, Shanti was the calmest I'd seen her since arriving.

I'd never met a cat whisperer before.

Mr. Park gently scooped Shanti into a carrier, and just like that, our work was done.

I'm ashamed to say I hadn't kept up in all the chaos, owing in part to a month long illness. Were it not for Jordan and Mr. Park, I might still be at the shelter trying to coax Shanti out of hiding.

He graciously dropped Jordan and I at the train station and snapped our photo, the carrier with the subdued Shanti between us.

And just like that, I became a cat owner for the third time.

Thanks Jordan and Mr. Park for making it happen!

Note to the readers: if some of you reading this feel apprehensive about adopting after reading this, please don't. Animals have feelings too and find comfort in their environments. To be taken away or touched can make them very scared and upset. It's important to give them time, space, love and attention so they can learn to trust again. Bear in mind that many animals have ended up in shelters through no fault of their own and don't understand why former owners may have given them up or worse, treated them poorly. Those of us who adopt shelter pets are menders of broken hearts; we may have to pick up the pieces but we also get to reap the benefits that comes from that TLC!