I realized this morning that I hadn’t written a post in a while, so I was trying to come up with ideas. What in my life has been different that I can comfortably post online? The solution? Cats.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever written about my cats here before, and honestly I’m too lazy to go digging through my old posts to see if I have. If I ever did, I would have mentioned the three that I had at the time; Mongo, Charlie, and Larry. All three are the best boys and I love them all very much.
After we kept Larry (He was the product of multiple cats being dumped in our yard) we had originally decided that we wanted no more cats. Three was enough. We only wanted two inside, and Larry could live outside in the shed. Then Matilda happened.
We found Matilda on May 1st, 2022. My mom was outside loading some of my sister’s friends into the car after a sleepover to bring them home when she heard a cat meowing. It wasn’t unusual for our neighbor’s cat, Sally, to be out and about at this time, so thinking it was Sally, she called for it. She was shocked to see the void of a cat that is Matilda run up to her.
Matilda was shockingly friendly. She pretty much crawled into my mom’s arms to escape the cold and started purring. My mom opened the door and called for me, asking me to grab the cat kennel and telling me that she would explain in a moment.
I was utterly delighted to see Matilda. As soon as she got into the kennel I brought her into the warmth of the house and instantly started filling up a food and water bowl for her. She was really hungry, she ate nearly a cup of cat food in one sitting.
My mom had to leave, which left me and my dad the ones at home. My dad was getting ready to depart for MMS (Speaking of which, he’s speaking at MMS Miami Beach! Learn more here.) that day, so that left me in charge of taking care of the mysterious cat, who I quickly named Matilda.
My dad left for MMS soon after my mom and sister returned, telling us to take her to the animal shelter as soon as they had a space open. However, my sister and I started crying at the thought of getting rid of the precious cat. My mom gave in and called my dad, telling him that we were keeping the cat. Despite what he had said earlier and the fact that he was on the road, he was okay with keeping her. After the week long wait to make sure nobody claimed her, she was officially ours.
It’s been over a year now since we officially adopted Matilda, and she has quickly adapted to inside cat life. Her favorite hobbies are sunbathing, playing, and cuddling with humans. On occasion (almost every day) she likes to torment Charlie, who has finally started speaking his mind when he gets fed up with her. We have the best kittens, and I love them all very dearly.
Kirstin Zaske, October 17, 2023