Kitty in the window

How much is that kitty in the window?

Oh, she’s definitely not for sale…

She’s my sweet and spunky, little Miss Kitty!

Miss K is one of the main reasons I get up in the morning (if only to stop her from walking all over me, trying to convince me that it is in my best interest to get up and feed her rather than grab an extra hour of sleep). We’ve been a pair for about eight years now, and we are dealing with the 24/7 hood rule by breaking it as often as possible. Whenever I’m home and have time to stay in one room and watch her, the elizabethan collar comes off and she has the opportunity to get some lovin’, play attack the thing on the end of the string, and sit in the window and soak up some sunshine while bird-watching.

Even if she never progresses to the point where I can take the hood off indefinitely, I truly love this cat. I’m so glad that my crackhead ex-roommate brought her home, didn’t take care of her and then left her with us while she went home on “medical leave.” In fact, I’m inclined to believe that Crackhead brought Miss Kitty (Shady, then) home with her because *someone up there* knew that Miss Kitty and I would end up being good for each other, that we needed one another. I attribute Miss K with getting me through my last two years of college mostly sane, and for lowering my blood pressure almost every day as we eat our breakfast together.

Miss Kitty was the first thing that happened in my life that made me think that there is a reason for everything, and a purpose. Her appearance in my life helped me to believe that life happens the way it is supposed to, and that our job is to try not to muck up the Master Plan with our own desire to satisfy the anticipation of waiting for Something Good to come. I think Miss Kitty coming into my life taught me that it’s okay not to rush, and that sometimes when you allow yourself the time to wait for what you want you get more than you could ever have expected or dreamed.

I will spend the rest of her life trying to show Miss Kitty that she is loved and wanted… something she didn’t have in the first seven months of her life. I will never leave her alone for 10 days without food or water. I will never lock her in a room overnight without access to her food, water and litterbox. I will never pick her up and make her scream. (Have you ever heard a cat scream?)

And every time I collect her from Mom’s house after I’ve been on travel, I’ll bring drive her back here and watch her run upstairs in excitement to be home. I’ll cherish the feeling of her curled against my thigh remembering how she used to demand space between us, and I’ll scratch her face, neck and throat remembering when it was almost impossible to touch her. But most importantly I’ll remember that I didn’t save this cat… I’m here today because Miss Kitty saved me.