Luna does her favorite acrobatic trick of jumping up on the bedpost. Two years ago, Columbia resident Georgette Sandifer heard a noise from her office window. “It always sounded like a child crying,” she said.

Sandifer and a coworker were able to locate the noise’s source: a tiny, white female kitten with no tail. She was filthy, smelly, and small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand, and, according to a veterinarian, so young that she hadn’t yet been weaned.

Today, the kitten, who once “smelled so horrible that she was known as Smelly Cat,” is an affectionate, lively cat named Luna. She plays fetch like a dog, follows her owner around the house, and has her own toy basket in the den.

One day, when she was still a kitten, Sandifer walked into her bedroom to find Luna perching contentedly on a bedpost. Luna has kept up with her acrobatics, even as she’s gotten a bit older and a bit less agile.

“If we tap the top of the bedpost, Luna will jump right up,” Sandifer said. “She does it less often now, but when she first started we’d have her do it over and over.”

Sandifer has two other cats: Phil, whose owners abandoned him during a move, and 15–year–old Jasmine, who was rescued during a thunderstorm.

“Luna and Phil play together, and he’s very indulgent,” Sandifer said, “but Luna picks on Jasmine unmercifully, trying to depose the queen of the household.”

For now, no other cats will be joining Jasmine, Phil, and Luna.

“I’ve rescued other cats but found homes for them. I’m trying to hold it to three,” said Sandifer.

All three of Sandifer’s rescue cats have brought her a measure of joy she can’t imagine living without.

“If I ever won the lottery,” she said, “I’d give a large amount of the money to something like Pets Incorporated…I can’t imagine a human being not having animals in their life.”