In praise of the road less travelled

Its no secret that I love my cats.  What's not to love?  They are friendly and affectionate... at least to me :)  Even better, they are very interesting to share space with.  Best of all, it is a joy to see them so happy and confident after everything that they have each been through.
Mind you, visitors to my house rarely get to see the whole crew.  My eldercat  slips off to a solitary spot where she can nap undisturbed when the doggy doorbells start chiming.   Dora has an extremely short list of acceptable humans she will deign to spend time with.   Then there is Oscar ...sigh.  Poor bud has never quite gotten over the heartbreak of being abandoned.  If company 'sneaks in' before he has a chance to hide, it would break your heart to hear him cry and skittle off doing his best dachshund impression :(
So it was a treat the other day to visit Laurie at HART, which is also her lovely home.   No vanishing acts ... only happy and curious kitties politely taking their turn to meet me.

To be perfectly honest, if George wasn't such a funnyhead about new cats coming in the door, I very likely likely would have tucked Kenya in my pocket and brought her home.

I was only forty when my eldercat landed in the yard ... and at the time my vet thought she was threeish. ( before you go dashing off to read old posts to see how old I am .. that means she is nineteenish now :)  Bear is very petite these days ... but continues to defy any unhappy expectations about her crf with grace and real style.

I never had the pleasure of knowing Bear as a kitten, but Kenya looks exactly like a little mini Bear.  

Until she became ill, Bear used to patrol the yard diligently every day.  Unlike the dogs, she knows to the inch where the property lines are and to this day will still puff up and growl if any of the neighbours kitties wander anywhere through the yard.  Back in the day, when she still insisted on going outside, Kitty Bear was quite capable of chasing big dogs off the property.

After which of course, she would preen, wash her paws and snuggle back up on my lap :)

This winter has been a precious gift we did not dare to hope for and all paws are crossed here that she isn't done with defying all the predictions :)

Kenya reminds me so much of my true elderbeauty.   She loves the company of other cats .. when I was there she was all snuggled up cozy in a basket with one of Laurie's beauties.  She was friendly and confident and purring up a storm.    I also suspect that, like Bear, she will neither suffer fools gladly nor waste her valuable time on people she doesn't actually like.

But like Bear, I think she is going to be one of those once in a lifetime cats ... and I envy the person who will prove worthy of her trust.  Like Frost's road less travelled, some cats are simply more suited to someone less ordinary.  And that can make all the difference.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.  Robert Frost