My Mouse

I found her on the playground when she was a few weeks old. "Please, can't we take her home?" I knew that life on the streets in Thailand was pretty short for a cat. Evan said no and I knew he was right. It made no sense. We weren't ready for the commitment of a pet, we had no idea what diseases she might have, and we weren't staying in Thailand forever. There was no way that we could take her back to the states with us. So I left her there.

Fast forward a few months and there's a scrawny cat begging outside of the lunchroom. Weak with hunger, it can barely walk, but it knows where the food comes from, and that the first graders are good at dropping morsels. I spied her and spent the entire lunchtime with her, fed her some pieces of chicken good vegetarian that I am!) and dreamed a little more about taking her home. But I knew it was impossible.

After that lunchtime, she showed up every day. And Evan was weakening. Finally he said that if she was waiting outside the teacher's room after school we could take her home on a trial basis. Bad luck for him, she was. We took her home, fed her, bought her some litter, food, and a soft place to sleep, and the rest was history. It took her a few weeks to get enough strength to jump up on the couch. And a few months more to completely settle in with us. She's still a little wild at heart, but she's completely ours. And I wouldn't have her any other way.

(PS For those wondering about the title, we named her Mouse. Strange name for a cat, I know, but somehow it just seemed to fit.)