Chloe: Tyler’s Girlfriend

A GREAT story from the blogger archives.

Shelter Cats

4 min readJun 25, 2022

Tyler, my first and best cat ever (sorry, guys) had a girlfriend.

Her name was…..Chloe.

Here is her story.

Originally blogged in late April of 2018.

Chloe: Tyler’s first apprentice

I could have sworn I blogged about this, but it looks like I didn’t.

How could I miss this story about Tyler!

This past Friday, I received some tremendous news, news that totally made my day.

I’d found Chloe.

Who, you may ask, is Chloe?

Chloe was Tyler’s brief love affair, and his first apprentice.

Here’s the story.

2007:

At the time, I had this close female friend, for the sake of decency I’ll not mention her name here. Let’s call her…..FRIEND. Friend and I spent a lot of time together when we were both single and lived close to one another. While primarily a dog person, Friend was always envious of the immense bond I had with Tyler, and was dying to, around late 2006–2007, attempt to recreate that bond by adopting a cat of her own.

Enter…Chloe. An adorable young semi-long-haired kitten from North Shore Animal League, an organization I’m not going to subject you to a rant about. Not a fan. Moving on.

Chloe was less than a year old, quiet, and sweet. A stand out among the many cats in many cages at that….place.

Friend fell in love with Chloe, Chloe got adopted.

Yay for Chloe!

About 5 weeks later into her life in Friend’s apartment in Nassau County, Chloe, as many cats do, got frightened one evening during a strong thunderstorm. Chloe hid and hissed, heck, even fearless Tyler would sometimes run behind something if the thunder was loud enough, can you blame her?

Friend, despite my attempt at being the “cat whisperer,” had had enough of poor Chloe as a result of this one unfortunate misunderstanding.

Chloe had to go.

With me taking the lead, I placed an ad and asked around in an attempt to find Chloe a proper loving home to spend her life in.

Meanwhile, for about 2–3 weeks, however, Chloe lived with me.

At the time, Tyler was pushing 8 and very much the head of the household and very much set in his ways. While I was more than happy to give Chloe shelter while I found her the love and home she deserved, I was, as always, never sure how the “old man” would react to this young female upstart.

Tyler, like he always did, proved me wrong. Again.

He adored Chloe.

Tyler took her under his wing and taught her everything he knew about how to be an awesome house cat. Chloe learned so much from him and they simply adored each other.

A few weeks later, I heard from a young couple living in Astoria, Queens. They were looking for a cat just like Chloe. A few emails, phone calls, and a visit later, I approved of their wish to give Chloe a loving home. They came to my apartment, picked her up, and she was off to the loving forever home she deserved, away from my fickle friend.

For a few months into 2007, I would get emails, letting me know how well Chloe was doing, and how much they loved her. While I did give some brief thought to keeping her myself, I was happy this couple came along to take her in and love her.

I love happy endings, especially when it came to cats.

In time, Tyler and I moved on. Tiger came to live with us, and that chapter of our lives began.

Chloe faded into the background.

A few weeks ago, I decided to poke through my old AOL account that I hadn’t used since about 2010 or so, just to see if any old photos of Tyler were saved in any emails. This was pre-cloud storage after all. I came across the emails from Chloe’s owner and found the photo I had sent to them that I shared above.

Suddenly it dawned on me.

Chloe! I wonder if she’s doing OK. I wonder if that sweet young couple still has her. She’d only be 11 or so by now.

To Facebook I went, and sure enough, Chloe’s owner had an account. I sent a message.

Hey, you may not remember me, but I was the one who, if I am not mistaken, helped you adopt your cat, assuming your cat is named Chloe!

Three weeks later I got a response:

Chloe is still alive and doing well. She has lived with us in NY, Montreal, and now she is here with a dog and 3 other cats in Fort Lauderdale, FL. I’ll send you some pics.