Purrrrr

Today, I am going to write about one of my cats.

I just got inspired because one of my cats, Miyu, is lying on the table next to me, purring like a broken motor. She has a story.

She was abandoned back home, and found on a busy street. I don't know who abandoned her, or how she was "kicked out," but I suspect it was a male, because when she meets new males, it takes her a very long time to warm up to them. Male voices seem to scare her, too. I found her at the Humane Society on "Free Cat Friday," and was told she was "undersocialized." She was only 5 months old, and I saw her in her little glass cage, peering up at me. She wasn't scared then, perhaps because she knew the cage kept her separated from all the scary people walking by. I visited with her in the room where they typically give the animals baths, and she ran under the tub and wouldn't come out. She wouldn't play with me, and no amount of coaxing would get her out. I finally reached under and pulled her out and held her. She was shaking. She was terrified, the poor thing. I told them I had to think about it and left.

I came back later the same day with my mom, because I was living with her at the time and wanted to make sure it was ok to have another cat in her house. We were in a different room this time, and I guess because Miyu remembered me but didn't know my mother, she crawled into my crotch (I was sitting cross legged on the floor). She was so scared of people she didn't know, it was heartbreaking. But I decided to take her anyway. She was the last cat to leave the building. There was another cat who was taken home before she was, and he was at least 12 years old. No one wanted an undersocialized kitten.

 
It took her a few weeks to get comfortable with me. She stayed under the bed in the guest room and I couldn't get to her. A few times I managed to grab her and hold her, but she would struggle and jump down and back under the bed.



But one day, I came in to give her food, and as I knelt down to place her bowls on the floor, she came out from under the bed and rubbed against my legs and my arms, over and over again. I guess she finally realized I was a nice person, and she finally decided I was hers (what with all the rubbing).

Since then we've been really close, and she gets along with my other cat, Jack (I will write about him sometime). They play and chase each other, sometimes they hiss at each other, but they go right back to being friends. She is so sweet and will rub against your legs and your hands for sometimes half an hour at a time. She still hides when people she doesn't know are around, but she warms up to them a lot quicker now. She doesn't really meow, she opens her mouth and makes a little squeaking noise. I read that many cats who grow up outside are taught by their mothers to only meow when something is wrong so as not to attract attention otherwise.

I sometimes wonder about her past, about where she was found, who she was with before me, why she ended up being abandoned. She is a lot like me - she has trust issues because she learned to have them. She's been betrayed, but she's pulled through and has found someone who loves and cares about her. My cats are really my best friends, and my family. I was not intending to get another cat after Jack, but I feel like Miyu and I were meant to be.

(Agggh, Mommy, too many kisses...)

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