LEADING WITH THE HEART
The Mayor Walks On All Fours
What have we done to deserve such a friendship?
Our pet makes visitors have thoughts. Some of the comments are judgy; others, simply curious. But most people are downright tickled once their questions have been let out into the yard.
“What’s the matter with your cat?”
“It jumped onto the hood of my car again, when I parked nearby!”
“You guys feed that animal, right?”
My answer is always the same:
“Oh, that’s just Holly! She isn’t hungry — I swear.
She is [Dos Equis Guy voice] the most sociable cat in the world.”
Holly is a brown tiger with white splotches like a cow’s, a three-year-old tabby with tiny toe socks and calico patches on her soft belly. Her holiday-themed name came from the fact that she was, inadvisably, my Christmas gift to the kids. (What can I say? Between my nervous breakdown, our kids’ mental health crises, and our family’s sudden move to avoid a sexually violent predator, we’d had a hellish year.)
The kids began to smile again when Holly joined our family. Our stress melted. But we were not prepared for the intangibles: she’s vocal. She’s aggressively friendly. She’s a cat who is more high-maintenance than some canines.
