OkcPets Magazine May 2023

May / June 2023 • OKC Pets 11 PETS AND THEIR PEOPLE Seeking Love and Trust Feral Animals Find Their Human Family by Jennie Lloyd | Photos by Linda Earley “I ’m just a stray magnet,” Shawn Thomp- son laughs. When feral cats need a home, they tend to seek her out — ar- riving on the edge of her property, curious yet cautious. “Animals just show up at our house,” Shawn says.“I think because I’m such an animal lover, I see animals. I notice them. Not everyone notices.” It takes a special kind of person — and a lot of patience — to earn the trust of stray, feral animals. Shawn and her husband, Richard (Dick) Thompson, have developed a system for earning that trust. The extensive rescue process begins with food, of course. “I have a process with cats,” Shawn says. “They typically come early in the morning or late at night, and I set out a food bowl when I know they will be there.” Shawn begins to leave food out twice a day. Little by little, day by day, she moves the food bowl closer to the house. Then she introduces her presence from a dis- tance. “Maybe I’ll just sit on the porch and do that for weeks or months, depending on how skittish they are. I just get closer and closer to them.” With her rescue cat Groucho, an orange boy with a white mane and thick orange mustache, “I eventually was able to sit right next to him while he ate, and I could pet him,” Shawn says. Groucho has been a “lovely house cat” for the past decade since he met Shawn in the neighborhood and transitioned through Ellis Island. A Feline Ellis Island The goal of moving the food closer to the house is to get the cats comfortable with Ellis Island, the nickname for the Thomp- sons’ enclosed porch. The neighbors, who all know about Shawn’s passion for rescuing strays, nicknamed the porch because it’s a safe space for animals — those huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The porch is a transition between the great outdoors and a stable life in the Thompson household. Shawn Thompson’s two rescue dogs are Ollie (left) and Max. Ollie works as a therapy dog at the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City.