Francisca Franken was reading the website of her local animal shelter late one night when she came upon an odd cat. Something about the cat’s flat face, rough demeanor, and sorrowful eyes made her stop scrolling.
“I saw her portrait and instantly fell in love,” Franken told The Dodo. “I chuckled at first because the photographs were so amusing, and I’d never seen a cat like this before.”
She quickly wrote to the shelter to ask whether the cat was still available, and she couldn’t sleep that night because she was so scared about hearing back. When she contacted again, the shelter couldn’t believe she genuinely wanted Bean.
“I got a call from a lovely girl from the rescue who inquired whether Bean was the cat I wanted to apply for because, apparently, no one had been interested in her previously,” Franken said. “The woman who contacted me was afraid that I had accidentally clicked the incorrect button or something.”
Bean was a stray in a trailer park before arriving to the shelter. She had never felt the love of a home and was suffering from an eye infection and other diseases. Franken, on the other hand, was determined to alter that.
“One woman escorted me to her chamber, and what I saw was far more lovely than I could have imagined,” Franken explained. “Bean was (and continues to be) so little and petite. She has stubby legs, a small tail, and the most flat face I’d ever seen. I burst into tears as soon as I came into her room because I was so overwhelmed. She was nothing like I had envisioned — yet she was so much better.”
Franken brought Bean home right away, and the cat made sure her new mom knew how thankful she was.
“At first, she was considerably more affectionate and attached to me wherever I went.” “According to Franken. “I believe she realized she didn’t have to ‘fake’ like way and that I would never let her go again, even if she stopped being cuddly and sweet, so she began to show me her snarky side. But I liked it because she let her true colors show.”
Bean now sleeps in bed with Franken every night and must constantly be in the same room as her. Bean’s favorite food, aside from her mother, is olives. She goes insane if she smells olives or olive brine.
“The first time she stole an olive, it was when I had a late-night snack and she rushed up to me and knocked the olive right out of my palm, picked it up, and raced away to eat it under the sofa,” Franken said.
Green olives and pimentos contain isoprenoids, which are chemically related to catnip. Bean is so infatuated with the salty snacks that she screams at her mother whenever she sees her take the olives out of the fridge.
Fortunately, olives are safe for cats in moderation, so Franken treats her to a couple as a reward.
