It's amazing how something quite insignificant to others can make you feel so happy.
Eight and a half years back I brought home two little kittens. My daughter had taken me to the Cat Haven in Shenton Park with the idea of buying me a kitten. There was a saucy little chap that we decided had to be the one so he was chosen almost immediately. It was then I noticed this tiny grey tabby peeking out from under a blanket and engrossed in what Henry (that was the name we gave the kitten we had already chosen) was doing. She was so cute and once I had given her a cuddle I decided that I would buy her as well. I just had to take her home.
It turned out that the two cats got on well together most of the time; they would play and you'd find them curled up asleep together but they were so different in temperament. Henry loved people and would always go to the window if he heard a car pull up outside and welcome our guest(s) quite happily. Precious (I had called her that as she seemed just so precious) on the other hand was incredibly shy of everyone except me, my hubby and my daughter (she had cuddled her for a couple of hours when we bought her home and I think they sort of bonded). As soon as a car stops outside or she hears footsteps Precious will run and hide under the bed or out she will go through the cat door when it is accessible for her to use.
The different temperaments eventually became even more so as Henry would quite often attack Precious and she became just a little scared of him. He was a very large cat (probably twice the weight of Precious and very strong). Poor Henry died in his sleep last August when he and Precious were both lying asleep on the living room carpet in front of the fan heater. We all miss Henry so very much and he has a special spot in the garden where we are going to build a small rockery to mark his resting place.
Precious went quite strange after Henry's death and it took some months before she would even go into the living room again or even stay in the house more than she was made to. Eventually she did come good and now sleeps on our beds every night, although still likes to pop out and sit on the window sill in the laundry checking out the back yard to make sure it is still there and all is as it should be.
The thing that has made me so happy this past week or so is this: over the years I would pick Precious up, pop her on my lap and would be lucky for her to stay there for more than 30 seconds or so. She was fine if she got on my lap of her own volition but I could not pick her up and expect her to stay. She would struggle to get down on the floor.
I don't know if it is the cooler weather or not but she now often comes out into my workroom (she does tend to want to be where I am) and I have been picking her up and she has been curling up on my knee while I am using the computer. It is not all that comfortable for me but she will stay indefinitely until I just have to get up and then usually carry her into the living room and deposit her there.
This may all sound so mundane but to have had a cat for eight and a half years and only now being able to pick her up and nurse her .... my choice to do so and not hers ...has made me feel terrific. Silly isn't it that such a small event could make me smile so? I just had to share this as I sit here with a silly grin on my face.
Incidentally, it is only my daughter and my brother (and my hubby of course) that Precious will go to....she still shuns everyone else and is particularly frightened of children and yet no child has ever hurt her. For that matter neither has an adult done so.
If I knew how to put photographs on this blog I would do so as I have a beautiful photo that my daughter took a year or so back of Precious in all her winter finery which she sheds each year to be cool for summer. It's a little like having two cats....a summer cat with short hair and a winter cat with long fluffy hair.
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