The following was published in Best Friends’ newsletter this week, and it’s a testimony to the recuperative power of love.

Former Great Kitty Rescue cat woos the ladies

August 5, 2009 : 8:53 AM ET
A cat named Jinx is showing his true colors. It turns out he’s a lady’s man.

Life hasn’t always been easy for Jinx. Somewhere along the way, he lost much of his nose.

His life with Best Friends started during the Great Kitty Rescue when he and hundreds of other cats were confiscated by county officials in Southern Nevada because of an institutional hoarding case. The cats all lived together on the hot desert floor when the county turned over care of the cats to Best Friends.

In the meantime, Jinx developed skin cancer and by the time he was rescued, it was too late for his tiny face to be the same. So Jinx was one of a couple hundred cats from Nevada who came to live at the sanctuary to get some much needed TLC.

Despite his nose, the ladies still think Jinx is a handsome boy. He lives in Rescue Village, a medical yurt set up especially for the rescued kitties on the grounds of Best Friends’ sanctuary, in a screened-off room where he can see and interact with other cats.

“Darkstar, a young, all-black, flirtatious kitty has taken quite a liking to Jinx,” says Linda Gage, manager of The Learning Experience for Best Friends who still watches over the rescued Nevada cats. “At lunchtime, Darkstar walks the fence, rubbing and cooing. Jinx, in return, jumps down from his perch, approaches the fence and meows gently to her. Several of the other gals, Holiday and Jewel, join in the gathering. They are all interested in Mr. Jinx.”

What’s doubly great about all that attention, Gage says, is that Jinx is just as interested in them. “We were originally told that he didn’t enjoy being with other cats and was afraid of them,” she says. “If that was the case, it’s not now.”

Jinx gets one-on-one time with Patch, another cat in a single room next to Jinx’s. “During the day we open the gate between Jinx and Patch and Jinx wanders over all the time, paying no mind to Patch at all,” Gage says. “Jinx jumps up on the shelving unit to his special orange bed and suns himself in the afternoon light.”

For a time, Jinx stayed in an office with Shelley Thayer, who at the time was circulation manager for Best Friends magazine and shared her office with senior copy editor Mary Girouard. “During the 10 months he stayed in our office,” Thayer says, “he began to blossom in his own stately way. When he walked, his movements were slow and cautious. He ate as slowly as he could, though he appeared ready to gobble.”

He tapped slowly at toys “and only if he thought we weren’t looking,” she says.

Slowly but surely, he started to come out of his shell. “Jinx changed from an inanimate creature to an actual curious cat during his time in our office,” Thayer says.

And, now, Gage says, he’ll be exposed to even more friends. “We are going to put Jinx in the big run with his ladies and the other cats to see how he does,” she says. “It’ll be closely monitored, but it looks like it’ll be a great fit.”

So have you fallen in love with Jinx, yet? He’s adoptable!

[LINK: Best Friends Animal Society]

See related Cat's Meow entries:

• National Feral Cat Day: Be Part of the Solution
• After 19 Years of Waiting, Cash Gets Furever Home
• Las Vegas Cats Hit the Jackpot
• Eagles Sign Animal Torturer Michael Vick: Take Action
• Do Feral Cats Remember Their Caretakers?