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photo by Talia Hodge
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photo by Talia Hodge
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photo by Talia Hodge
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photo by Talia Hodge
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photo by Talia Hodge
When Brunswick residents Scott and Melanie Turner wound down at the end of the night in late October 2023, their 1-year-old tortoise cat, Lillybug, often snuggled with Scott in the recliner. Melanie, however, sat alone. She missed their longtime pet, Simba — the cat had been like her shadow and had passed away two weeks prior.
“Melanie would be sitting there. She looked lost and lonely. … I didn’t want her to be in pain anymore,” says Scott, who came across a tortoise kitten up for adoption from Pawsitive Hope in North Canton. “She was so adorable. I took the steps, made the phone calls, decided to adopt her and surprise my wife.”
When Scott met the almost 3-month-old kitten around November, she was so playful that it made it tough to hold onto her. He adopted her, put her in a pet carrier, took her to their basement and called Melanie down. She heard a mew and saw the new kitten. Instantly, she got emotional.
“I went from crying because I was happy to crying because I felt guilty about Simba — like Is it too soon?” she recalls. But she let the kitten they named Ladybug out of the carrier, and her heart softened. “She was fun. She immediately started purring and loving us. It was love at first sight.”
It was a slower process to get Lillybug acclimated to her new sister. They had to be separated at first. Now, though, they are two of a kind. The pair nap on the cat condo together, chase each other and even clean one another. Scott once found them snuggled up together in a drawer. And the Turners are just as attached.
“We’ll go to the casino or out to dinner, and we’ll be sitting there looking at each other going, We miss the cats. Let’s go home,” Melanie says.
Now Melanie has her lap cat. With Ladybug, she is healing from grief.
“She likes giving me love and helped fill the void,” says Melanie, who realized Simba wouldn’t want her to be hurting. She’s glad she was able to open her heart to Ladybug. “I fell in love with her. I knew everything was going to be OK.”
