The Cat Lady

All my life I had always been a dog person. Growing up, all my family raised poodles. My first very own dog Taro was a gift from my grandfather. He is an albino poodle with the kindest temperament anyone could ever find. When I moved to Australia, I had to leave him with my Auntie. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss him.

It was a long while before we welcomed Panda into our life. It happened by chance. She was a small little stray meowing the neighbourhood for food. I came home one night to find her waiting, scratching at the screen door. When she saw me she gave me a weak meow and started rubbing her cheeks on my ankles. I gave her a good scratch and opened the door. As soon as it opened she bolted into the house with me trailing closely behind. We shared a can of tuna that night (on different platters obviously). She purred as she ate. My family came home from work to find me on the lounge with Panda purring happily, her head gently tucked into my neck. We were there for hours before I had to get up and head to bed. I took her outside thinking that I would never see her again. The next morning I heard loud scratching  and meows coming from outside and her cute face on the other side of the window, peeking in.

It became a morning routine for us. One morning my brother found a “flea” on her. I believe at that stage I was in denial and refused to see her as anything but perfect. I also wanted her to keep coming over but I knew that eventually I would have to take her to the RSPCA to find her owner.  It was a bad month trying to get rid of the infestation and we have scars to prove it.
We took her to the RSPCA. I cried and cried the night before thinking that I would never see her again. I begged the workers there to call me if someone came in to pick her up so I could say my good byes. One morning the phone rang, I froze when she had said she was from RSPCA but relief came over me when she said that Panda has gone through her claim period and can be legally adopted. It was the best day.

On the 9th of May, we took her home. Free of flea. Nowadays she cries for her food early morning, paws and playfully bites at my hand to wake me up. She is my personal alarm clock and although she leaves me small unpleasant surprises in the bathroom, from the day we met she was the best unexpected thing to claw into my life.