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“Where’s Sophia?” I was asked anxiously when she was not in either of her two boxes at breakfast.
As Grant grovelled to look under the sofa, her only other normal refuge, I went to check another possibility…
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…and found her curled up in a bed beneath the front window where she’s never slept before.
A few nights ago I’d seen her venture tentatively into that room and apparently – she likes it.
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This may not seem news-worthy, but it’s a major step for this very timid old girl, like her discovery only last year of outdoors and walking on grass.
In her dotage she has begun to enjoy life. It’s a sort of common bond between us, as it took me until I was 70 to find my own freedom.
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Sophia suffered an unknown but deeply traumatising ordeal when she was young, which sent her into a shell.
In her foster suite in Washington, which she shared with her sister Patches and just two other gentle cats, she began to relax, but when the move to New York involved a consolidation of my cat population, it sadly set her back.
Since then our numbers have diminished drastically and with any loss there is always a shifting of the dynamic in such a group.
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As much as we loved Tinkerbelle, it has to be acknowledged that she was a difficult cat.
She doted on Grant, but only in her last year would she even tolerate me, growling if I so much as looked at her too closely.
Poor Tinks had had a bad start in life which made her very spiky to all other cats and most people.
When she stopped hissing and swiping at me, accepting my affection, I feared she was approaching her end.
The ultimate bittersweet.
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Dwelling on what might have been is to perpetuate the emptiness of what wasn’t.
So one should enjoy whatever goodness one finds in the present and appreciate it, as nothing is forever.
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Such as our summer entertainment.
Currently, a single ground hog may be seen periodically.
After grazing on bird seed, she scurried about collecting grass to refresh her burrow, shunning the carrot we offered.
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But this morning, she’d acquired an appetite.
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Finding the carrot Grant threw out last night…
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…she seized hold of it…
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…and tried to tackle it…
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“I’m not so sure about this.”
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“Are you taking my picture?”
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“Then you pay me!”
“Peanuts would be acceptable.”
And up she came onto the porch for a breakfast she seemed to regard as more satisfying .
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Perhaps the groundhog had some kind of dental problem? I have seen them demolishing carrots in your previous photos. Having so many cats in one house must mean issues of dominance, I suppose. In the wild there would usually be a dominant female and a pride-leading male. That dynamic might not work where you are being fed and cared for, with no need to hunt and breed.
Best wishes, Pete.
We don’t have Groundhogs here, but they’re quite cute and yours looks like a character.
Wow, what a relationship you had with Tinkerbelle…I find that cats can be quite moody, much like people! 😉
It’s nice to read that Sophia is moving a bit out of her normal/comfort zone – I believe it’s proof that she’s content with her life as it is at the moment. You’re absolutely right Carolyn – nothing is forever – a phrase we should never forget … Carpe Diem, right?
Thank you, Carolyn, for your spirit-lifting and wonderful photographic post! I agree with your other reader that as nothing lasts forever we must seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future.
Joanna