At a quiet rescue nestled in Fort Mill, two animals are doing what shelter pets do best — waiting, hoping, and in one case, talking about it at length.
Whiskerbell has opinions, and she will share them.
The three-year-old tuxedo cat arrived at the Humane Society of York County as an owner surrender, and from the moment she settled in, staff say she made her presence known. It is those whiskers that stop people first — long, wild, and brilliantly white, shooting out from her black-and-white face like she just got the surprise of her life. Someone thought she looked like a kitten. She is not offended. She considers it a compliment.
Six months have passed since Whiskerbell came through the doors, and the staff are ready to see her go — not because she has been any trouble, but because she deserves better than a kennel window for bird watching. She loves a good window. She loves a good snuggle. She loves to tell you exactly how her day went, and she expects you to listen.
“She is just the purrfect little girl,” one volunteer said, in what may be the most accurate deployment of a cat pun in rescue history.
Whiskerbell is spayed, vaccinated, tested, and microchipped. She has not yet been formally introduced to other cats, but staff believe with a proper transition, she would hold her own. She is ready for a home, a lap, and ideally a window with a decent bird population.
Down the hall, in the dog wing, Frito is having a more complicated morning.
The little guy — a DNA-confirmed cocktail of fifteen different breeds, with Dachshund and Chihuahua leading the pack — has been at the HSYC for nearly two and a half years. That is a long time for any dog. It is an especially long time for a dog with as much personality as Frito carries in that compact, Chiweenie frame.
Here is what you need to know about Frito: when he loves you, there is no one more devoted, more playful, more flat-out funny. He is loyal to the bone — several bones, actually, distributed across fifteen breeds.
Here is what else you need to know: he does not love everyone right away. The volunteer who writes his weekly spotlight admits, with some heartbreak, that Frito wants nothing to do with her. She suspects she reminds him of someone from a harder chapter of his life. She does not hold it against him. She just keeps showing up, hoping today is the day he comes around.
He came to the shelter from Animal Control. What happened before that, no one knows for certain. What staff do know is that somewhere out there, Frito’s person exists — someone who will walk through that door, lock eyes with this fifteen-breed wonder, and become exactly the kind of human he has been waiting for.
He is neutered, vaccinated, tested, and microchipped. He is ready.
Both of them are.
The Humane Society of York County is located at 8177 Regent Parkway in Fort Mill. Appointments can be made by calling 803-802-0902, and adoption information is available at humanesocietyofyorkcounty.org.
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