Our Cat

Many of you have seen pictures of the cat who adopted us from the first day we moved into our new home. As we opened up the gate, he sat on the fence across the street and meowed insistently at us. We could not touch him, but he wanted us to know that he was there.

He kept his distance for the first week. We would see him in the corner of the yard, or he would venture onto the porch if we did not come outside. With him, we could be on the porch with him, but if we moved in his direction he ran. My “catness” saw this as a challenge.  To win the trust of this little guy meant more than all of the dogs that come up freely wanting attention.

I remember the first time that he ventured into the house.  Cautiously looking around, ready to dart if he needed to.  I knew that Stephen was not interested in having a cat, but inside I rejoiced that I might have won over this precious creature.

A few days later he let me touch him. He loved the attention, but I think it scared him too. He was used to being wild and having to fend for himself, and it seemed that he was a little scared to get too comfortable.

One morning as I was cautiously petting him, Stephen said, “We should feed him and take care of him!”

Stephen, you do realize this means he would be our cat, right?” He smiled. I love that!

Over the intervening weeks, Queso, our cat, has become more and more comfortable with domestic living. The morning I came out of our room and saw him lounging on the couch, I knew we had him. He was a little sheepish about it, keeping eye contact with me to see if I would shoo him away.

Now he lets us hold him, on his terms, and he purrs like crazy any time you scratch his head. He greets us in the morning and meows insistently until we both pet him. He seems thrilled to have a home- sitting on the rug like a sphinx.

The other thing about him is that he does everything with gusto- if he is hungry, he meows loudly, if he is tired, he naps all sprawled out, if he wants to be pet, he rubs up against your leg with purpose, if he wants to play, he gets his whole body into it, when he walks, the combination of the slightly bowed front legs with a backend swagger that moves with his tail is awkwardly precious.

He is fun to have in our lives, for both of us, most of the time! It is nice to be trusted.