One day, partly into my chemo treatment, my daughters and I ran into a cat when we were on a walk around the block. He was a friendly cat, and came up to us to greet us, and enjoyed being pet by us. He was a particularly beautiful orange tabby cat.
We love animals, so it is always nice when we come across a friendly dog or cat on our walks, especially ones that we find to be cute. When we see them, we often try to interact with them, just because they are so cute and awesome. Most cats we see are not interested though, and run away.
But this guy was really friendly, so we spent about 15 minutes talking with him and petting him. He didn’t look particularly thin, so we figured he had a home. And we went on our way.
About a week later, we saw him again, this time at our house, almost a half a mile away from where we saw him first. This time he was much skinnier. We figured he didn’t have a home after all. At first we were trying to talk a friend of my hubby to take him. But we ended up falling in love with him.
We are suckers for strays, truly. So, he ended up staying. Honestly, it was not really a good time for more responsibilities. We already had 3 cats. Our finances weren’t great. I had just started chemotherapy. And several other aspects of life were really difficult. REALLY difficult.
But we couldn’t shoo him away. He was SO adorable. He had the cutest personality. He was so playful, and he has this way of grabbing you without using his claws. He loves playing with feather toys, and it was so much fun to watch him play. And he poses for photos SO nicely! I cannot say the same for our other cats. They just don’t know how to model like Charlie.
He plumped up really fast, and that made him even cuter. Although I ended up just calling him Charlie just to call him something, it ended up sticking. I was considering calling him Pillsbury, or Totoro, just because he looked quite a bit like either one.
Having this cute adorable guy join our family was a joy, and he truly added joy to our lives. I believe it really helped me, and helped my whole family have a little bit easier time getting through the first months of chemotherapy.
May you be blessed with surprise joy. Delight, laughter, and warm fuzzy joy. May it bless you, delight you, inspire you and strengthen you in your difficulties.
Huge, joyful and adorably cute blessings to you!
