Pet of the Week: Orphie

LebTown features a different Lebanon County pet each Friday to help us enter the weekend with the best vibes possible.

Our Pet of the Week is sometimes available for adoption through a local shelter. Other times the weekly column will spotlight a local furbaby who already lives in a happy Lebanon County home.

This week, meet Orphie.

Orphie (short for Orpheus, the Greek hero from the Odyssey) is an orange tabby adopted from the Humane Society of Lebanon County by LebTown scribe Katie Knol.

“He (previously named Tigger) was surrendered to the shelter because his previous owner was unable to care for him. No further information was shared, but I think it might be due to the next fact,” Katie says. “This might be the loudest cat you’ve ever met. From the moment I met him at the Humane Society, he would meow like he was responding to me when I talked. He’s actually so talkative that I sometimes warn my sources over the phone that he is the one meowing — not me!”

Soon to turn 4 years old, Orphie has traveled back and forth with Katie from State College to his home in Lebanon County, “and now he’s here to stay while his mom reports for LebTown. He would yell so much in the car that I had to cover his crate and avoid eye contact until he gave up.”

Katie says Orphie “was great for my mental health throughout college and beyond, but he also taught me about patience and working with different … eccentricities. He liked to tip his food and water bowls over and then refuse to eat/drink off the ground. It took about four different meal setups until he stopped.”

He enjoys watching hockey, she adds. “As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t understand the rules, but he likes watching the players go back and forth across the screen.”

He is also trained to headbutt, Katie says, although it didn’t happen on purpose. “It’s how he shows affection,” she says. “He also flops onto his side and rubs his face into anyone’s hand to make sure they are petting him correctly.”

She believes he’s a good ambassador for his species.

“For anyone who doesn’t like cats or thinks they don’t care about people, meet Orphie!” she says. “My dad wasn’t a cat fan, but insists Orphie is different. He said he’s ‘more dog than cat’ because of how social he is. He’s just a big baby who wants attention at all times.”

Congratulations to Orphie for being this week’s LebTown Pet of the Week!