This senior cat must have been extremely wise, as he walked into the residence of a very dedicated cat rescuer!

Andrea Budkis Christian fosters for St. Francis Society Animal Rescue and you’ve likely seen numerous stories about her fosters in the past. She tends to take on the severe cases and is truly a life-saver to these delicate lives.

So did this wise old cat know that Andrea was his first step to a new life? And just exactly where did he come from? With the TNVR (Trap/Neuter/Vaccinate/Return) work that she does, she’s pretty familiar with the felines in her neighborhood. But this old chap was new and clearly very friendly!

Figuring her home HAD to have been marked by the neighborhood ferals as the “crazy cat house”, Andrea’s rescuing skills kicked in. This just happened to be MUCH EASIER when they simply walk through your front door!

Although he was clearly a senior cat and extremely skinny, he didn’t have any visible physical injuries. So the next morning, and made him an appointment with her veterinarian for that day. They wanted to make sure he wasn’t injured internally. While there, they could also check for a microchip and see if he was “owned” too.

And wouldn’t you know it?! The old man had a microchip–registered to an address right down the road from Andrea! His name was listed as “Bob”, he was about 15-years-old, neutered and he’d only recently been adopted.

But during the short time after he’d walked into their lives, there was another thing they hadn’t realized during the confusion. 

Bob was deaf. But how was it that he’d come to be wandering the streets now?

When Andrea had originally posted the photo of Bob sauntering into her home on the St. Francis foster page, he was actually recognized! The person that realized she’d seen him before was none other than mom, Tabatha Norton. When you are in rescue, you literally see dozens of cats / cat photos a day. So however she recognized him is a baffling miracle!

But when Tabatha saw the photo, she pointed out that this was the same cat posted on a much scarier Facebook page. It was on the Urgent Cats of Tampa Bay page on May 1st, 2019, and he was named Tyrone. (Be aware that his adopter doesn’t necessarily get the info that the rescue groups / organizations may have access too on pages like UCTB below.)

In a happy twist of fate, Tyrone was saved and adopted out the next day. But nothing was noted about his hearing issues then either.

Tyrone is a nice old neutered male stray cat that has severe dental disease and a heart murmur. FeLV/FIV negative. Has some mild hair loss and dermatitis. Tyrone is ready to go. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are able to take him.

So Bob, named because the old boy looked like a bag-of-bones, had “walked” out of the shelter with a new family.

When Andrea and the vet learned of Bob’s microchip, they nervously called the number listed. Many times the “owners” have abandoned the pet and never reply or update any data. But they actually reached Bob’s new adoptive mom and she hadn’t tossed him out.

Turns out he is deaf and sort of wonders off! He was recently adopted from the Pet Resource Center by a sweet young woman who saw he was going to be euthanized because he was old.

Photo courtesy of Tabatha Norton / @RescueLogan

It was extremely sweet and generous of her to save Bob’s life. But sadly, the additional medical attention he had needed hadn’t been done yet. And why not you may ask? Because apparently much of that information was NOT relayed to the adopter when she picked him up. They had NO idea he needed the medical attention he did. He was also spending a lot of his time outdoors, which for a deaf (any cat really) cat is NOT wise.

Then Bob’s new mom did something that took extreme courage and a depth of heart not many have.

She surrendered Bob over to St. Francis Society Animal Rescue so that he could have his medical needs addressed. Her wish was that he could then find a safe, indoor home.

Photo courtesy of Andrea Budkis Christian

However, Andrea’s home is usually full–and most are newborns and severe medical cases, often contagious. So she knew that her home wasn’t going to be the best match for “Landlord Bob” though, as she’d taken to calling him for walking in like he owned the place. HAHA!

But she did know of one foster who had an amazing senior cat of her own that LOVED to help welcome fosters into the “good life”.

So with lots of kisses and a few tears the young woman that saved him has turned him over to St Francis Rescue. A very special foster is who he’s going to go live with–and a very SPECIAL cat everyone loves!

That home would be alongside another senior boy who was lucky enough to be saved from the street life–Logan, the Werewolf Cat!

With that, Landlord Bob “walked” into the foster home of Tabatha and Logan…and any other little kittens Logan is helping watch over.

Bob is extremely skinny so we are trying to help him gain some healthy weight. He is very affectionate and talkative and he is so gentle.

One of his favorite things to do is sit in the window and look outside at the trees blowing and the birds flying. Do you have it in your heart to help give a loving senior cat his real “forever” home? If so, please contact

Bob is literally one of those souls that fate shines upon during life’s darkest moments. And from what little we do know of his previous life, fate was LONG overdue to smile upon him! He was simply wise enough to have walked through the right door.