[Magdalen] a delightful companion

[James Oppenheimer]

When we went to adopt some cats a while back, we asked for adult cats, and
we got three of them, but as we were moving through the shelter, a little
paw reached out, "Hello. Did you forget about me???  I'm down here."

She was a dear little kitten, and we took her home too.

How would she get along with the other cats?  Quite well, as it turned out.

Nancy decided that Malcolm, our twenty-four pounder, was her big brother,
and she began pouncing on him, and the two of them wrestled.

Should we intervene? Would he hurt her?  On close observation, we saw, she
was generally the one who initiated things, and Malcolm was obviously
pulling his punches.  He seemed to be enjoying the interchanges, but he was
gentle in his response. He seemed very much aware that he outweighed her
almost four to one.

Nancy seemed to have chosen me from the first day as her favorite. And I
resolved that if she ever came to me, I would pet her for as long as she
wanted to stay.  She developed a pattern, which now is unchanged after
three years, that she walks across my lap, turns to me and gently rubs her
face against mine, purring softly. She climbs up onto my right shoulder,
and down the left, and comes to rest on my lap with her tiny paws nesting
on the inside of my right elbow.

A marvelous stress reducer, for sure!


James W. Oppenheimer
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente