I was never a cat person before the night we brought Sylvia home. I'd been clawed in the face by a cousin's cat when I was a kid. Then we adopted a cat when I was in high school and she was nothing short of a hellion. Cats weren't cute and cuddly like dogs and therefore I wanted nothing to do with them. When your 6'2", almost 300 lb fiance gives you sad puppy eyes and begs for a cat, though...you just have to say yes.
What I learned over the next few weeks was that cats are fabulous. They can entertain themselves. They love to sleep. They will just curl up in your lap and purr while you stroke them and watch TV. You'll laugh when they beg for pepperonis off your pizza or when they knock over a glass of milk and just lick it up from the ground while the milk continues to drip on their head. Basically the only thing that sucks about cats is cleaning up their shit from the litter box...but you have to do the same with dogs, so oh well.
Sylvia always had this air of prissy little miss about her, but I didn't fault her for that. She was particular about...well...lots of things. She always showed us love, though. She never once seemed to miss a beat or care when we moved somewhere new (we moved 3 times with her): every new home was yet another new kingdom for her and we, her servants, were still there to feed her and make sure the litter was kept clean. What I most enjoyed was everything was purr-worthy for her. She'd just sit in the floor and purr. We'd pet her and she would purr. She'd purr while she ate. She'd purr even when she was angry. It was pretty comical.
Sylvia was not very tolerant of other cats or people, but she was oddly very tolerant of the girls. She'd let the girls pick her up and carry her around. She'd let the girls slap her with a toy. She even once let Meredith pile blocks on top of her for a good 5 minutes. Somehow it was like she knew they were just small children; somehow she knew they were our babies and she knew to be extra nice to them.
I think my favorite thing about Sylvia was how she always seemed to know when I really needed a cat in my lap. She was always there when I needed a hug or a distraction. She was also always there when I didn't want her to be. Ha!
It's going to be hard to be without her. 2017 sure is testing my strength so far. It's also showing me how absolutely wonderful the world still is and how many lovely, loving people with huge hearts of gold I have in my life. There's seriously been some rock stars placed in my life and they are really getting a chance to shine during all of the turmoil these first few months have been filled. I'm feeling the love big time again. I guess it's all part of the plan, isn't it? It's there already set in my road of life.
Someone said today that they think they see beautiful things ahead for later in the year. I can only hope that my eyes are open and ready to see them when I get to them. There's no sense looking down at the ground or back behind you...the real beauty is what's up and ahead, right?
And Sylvia, I just know you and Harley are catching up over a bowl of cat's milk curled up in a pile of daddy bear's clothes, purring away. Just don't go stealing anyone else's pepperoni pizza, okay?
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