As soon as she stepped inside the shelter, she heard dozens of cats meowing, dogs growling, barking, and producing a few mournful howls. A parrot resting on a man-made branch screeched, “Good morning. Please have a seat.”

“That’s Beau, our receptionist. At least he thinks he is,” said a young girl. “Are you here to adopt or volunteer?”

Lauren paused for a second, “I’d love to do both, but today I’d like to adopt. A cat. For now.” The more barking and meows she heard, the more she wanted to adopt every single pet in the shelter, but she knew that was unreasonable. However, she had another thought. Didn’t shelters need donors, financial donors? Of course they did. She added them to her mental checklist.

“Then follow me, and I’ll introduce you to our family.”

Lauren trailed behind her, then went through a set of steel doors. The animals were all lined up on either side of the walls in cages, which broke her heart, but the cages were huge, and most of the dogs were together. Some lay side by side, others jumped up on their hind legs, paws on the mesh, as though they were saying, “Pick me, pick me.” Tears filled her eyes. She wanted all the animals. Dogs, cats, birds. They all tugged at her heartstrings, but again, she knew she had to be reasonable.

“We’ve got a momma cat, she just had two kitties, and they’re as sweet as sugar.” The young girl took her to an area away from the rest of the animals. Inside another fenced-in area was a big fluffy tabby cat and two tiny matches snuggled against their mother. “They need a home.”

“No way am I taking kittens from their mother, or vice versa.”

“Of course not. We don’t allow that here, anyway. However, we do allow one to adopt these little felines, but only as a family.”

“Oh,” was all Lauren could say.

Rooted to the floor, she stooped and stuck two fingers through the mesh. The mother cat meowed, then edged herself and her babies up to the mesh. Momma cat rubbed her nose against Lauren’s fingers, giving off a soft meow. “I can take all three?” she asked, but her mind had already been made up the second Momma cat rubbed her soft little nose against her fingers.

“That would be awesome, but we ask that you keep them together. It’s one of our conditions.”

“I’ll promise you they’ll stay together.” Lauren quickly signed the required adoption papers and agreed to allow Dr. Melloh, a veterinarian who volunteered his services at the shelter, to come to her house and inspect it. While she didn’t know they’d go to such an extreme, she was glad they did. Sending an animal into a new home was a very big deal. Of course, it should be investigated.