Furry Friday - Or a Boy and his Cat

I actually started writing this post earlier in the week, but the loss of some online friends furbabies reminded me of just how important it is to properly introduce Cat to my little blog.

Here is a picture of my cat

We got her at an adoption fair a few months before The Boy was born. Not long before that my very much worshipped and adored calico cat died suddenly of kidney failure. As heartbroken as I was, I wanted my son to grow up with a cat, to never know what it was like to NOT have a cat. So we went to the adoption fair and found the awesomeness that is our cat. She was 2 at the time, had been in a foster home for 6 months and considered un-adoptable because "people want kittens." WTF? Whatever, we thought. It's everyone else's loss.

Fast forward 2.5 years. Cat and The Boy are buddies. He follows her around meowing and she tolerates his "love" in head-butting the tummy form. They jostled for lap space on Hubs when The Boy was wee, still do actually. He's a pro at petting other cats and dogs because of being told from the time he could wave a little arm and clench a little fist to "be gentle with Cat."

::There were a couple of pics of Cat from The Boy's infancy and early infancy that I planned put here, but Hubs asked that I not. Grrrr::

And cat is equally gentle with The Boy. Even now, when he's old enough to know better and big enough to really hurt her, she refuses to swat at him, enduring whatever kind of attention he's showing her until she turns on her delicate paws and moves out of his reach. But never for very long. She's always the first on the scene when he's sad, circling his crib(sorry, bed) if he's crying letting off a cheerful meow when he climbs into bed to let him know she's there.

That's not an exaggeration, they're really that cute with each other.

She really his The Boy's cat, and I love the fact that he's growing up with her. It makes me incredibly proud to see how well The Boy treats her and, because of learning to treat her well, how well he treats all animals. The sight of the 2 of them together makes me go all "aw shuksy." Even as I write this they're both napping on either side of me, making me thank my lucky stars for my little family.