Joe Kahlo
Francisca Franken was browsing her local animal shelter’s website one day when she came across an odd-looking cat
There was something unique and interesting about the cat’s flat face, huge sad eyes, and tough attitude that made Francisca stop scrolling.
“I saw her photo and fell in love the second I saw her,” She told The Dodo. “Well, at first I laughed because the pictures were so funny and I’d never seen a cat like this before.”
So she contacted the shelter right away to see if the cat was still available, and couldn’t sleep that night from her nerves.
Much to her delight, the shelter called her back with good news, and they couldn’t believe that someone actually wanted to adopt Bean.
“I got a call from a friendly lady from the rescue who asked me if Bean was really the cat I wanted to apply for because, apparently, nobody had been interested in her before,” said Franken.
“The woman who called me was scared that I just pressed the wrong button or something.”
Bean was a stray living in a trailer park before she was rescued by the good people from the shelter.
She suffered from many ailments such as an eye infection, and a lack of love and a home, but Franken was out to change that.
“One woman led me to her room, and what I saw was much more beautiful than I could ever imagine,” she said.
“Bean was (and still is) so tiny and small. She has very stubby legs and a short tail and the flattest face I had ever seen.”
“I started crying when I walked into her room because I was so overwhelmed. She was not at all what I had imagined — but it was so much better.”
“A lot of people who saw her at the shelter said she was ugly, but I think she’s the most perfect girl ever.”
“In the beginning, she was much more cuddly and clung to me everywhere I went,” Franken said.
“I think she then noticed that she didn’t need to ‘pretend’ like that and that I would never let her go again, even if she stopped being cuddly and cute, so she started to show me her sassy side. But I loved that because she let her true colors shine through.”
Now, Bean sleeps with Franken in her bed every single night and is always in the same room as her.
Bean’s mad about olives, she goes crazy whenever she smells olives or olive brine and gets a taste.
“The first time she stole an olive was when I had a little late-night snack and she ran up to me and smacked the olive right out of my hand, scooped it up and ran away to eat it under the couch.”
Apparently, her olive obsession is quite normal, certain olives contain chemicals named isoprenoids which have a similar makeup to catnip.
Bean is so obsessed with olives, that often she will squeal at her mom whenever she sees her handling them.
So Franken often uses olives as a reward for Bean, and luckily for her, they are safe for cats.
Franken feels that satisfying Bean’s olive obsession is the least she can do for the cat, considering all Bean’s done for her.
“Bean is not a real emotional support animal but she’s definitely gotten me through tough times already, and I can’t put into words how much I love her.”
