Lily just arrived on my desk, fleeing from the house cleaning palava which she likes about as much as most cats. She licked at some doodles I’d made on my desk pad with a gel pen. She’s crazy for gel pen ink!
Lily is my senior cat now. She came from a nursing home where the family of a patient had been feeding her as a stray. The nursing home complained and she had to go, very much to the sadness of the family and patient 🙁
When I heard her story, of course I accepted her and my heart went out to the family.
At the time we had a rather boisterous group in the foster suite and Lily was a timid little girl, so she seemed a little overwhelmed.
Lily hadn’t been with us many days when I went downstairs and found her looking at me like this:
Needless to say, next thing you know, she was upstairs with my bunch of ruffians:
Cisco 
Grisabel 
Panther
.
Panther and Cisco were the biggest buddies
Until Grisabel arrived…
….and then he went all dotty
But when I could get him to assert his rights as house boss…
…he could be quite serious, and Lily’s addition was sanctioned.
.
We’ve come a long way, Lily and I:
We saw lots of friends come and go together. She became my senior girl:
She always wanted to be on my chair
Every time I sat down, she would arrive, behind my back
To paw at me
And then one day, she didn’t.
I don’t know why. Maybe it was after Grant took her outside and widened her horizons.
For a while she still competed with Lucy for possession of the adjacent chair
But then she gave that up too
Now she’s here and there…
“Just sitting here for now” 
“make sure you wash my bowl properly” 
“going down to see Grant” 
“You don’t mind, do you?” 
“Funny-looking water bowl!” 
The “THINK” box
She’s moved on. She often goes downstairs now, to spend the night with Grant and his guys.
I miss her on the bed with me at night, I miss her poking at me. But she’s always been a cat that walked her own path. She’s still very much a part of my life and I love her dearly. She’ll come and check in with me at times, as if to say “we’re still good, right?”
And of course, we are.
Cats! You never know what happens next with them. Your cats are so cute!