Contributing writer

By Renee L. Austin*

Continued from yesterday

It’s been a year now, and the cat I was so reluctant to bring into the fold is a constant companion. Eva is always on my lap or at my feet, or greeting me at the door, when she’s not off raiding the kitchen.

Eva. (Photo courtesy of Renee L. Austin)

She could stand to lose a pound, maybe a bit more, but that’s something we’ll deal with later. Her enthusiasm for food is rooted, I’m sure, in her having been so near starvation.

Eva walks with an awkward waddle as she follows me around the house. Her back, neck and hip problems are always apparent — even more so when she first awakens and tries to work the stiffness from her sore joints and muscles. The chronic cough from a heartworm infection sometimes wakes us all in the night.

But these things don’t seem to prevent her from playing in my office, devouring the contents of my plate if I look away, or applying teeth and nails if I decide too soon that she needs to get down.

Eva is a happy cat now.

Sometimes I try to imagine what it must have been like out in the middle of nowhere with no food, no shelter, no hope. Just hunger and cold and loneliness, and a hopeless fading day by day.

And then I marvel at how, with my crazy schedule and ever-changing driving routes, the teeniest possibility came, in all the minutes and hours and days and miles, of coming upon Eva a second time.

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving the back way through the rain and gloom, and saw an animal moving up an embankment. I kept going and then stopped, backing carefully until I was even with a little gray tortie cat. She wanted nothing to do with me. But as I drove away and worried that she might be in need but frightened, I realized I had at least stopped for that first opportunity.

I tucked my own concern away and have not been back through there since. Some things are meant to be. Some things aren’t, I guess.

One thing I do know — we have to be willing to stop and keep our hearts open to let someone in our lives. Even if there’s only a tiny bit of space among the pieces.

* Renee Austin is the owner of Whimsy Cats, an in-home cat sitting service in Northern Virginia specialized in cats who need special care such as meds, fluids or insulin and post-surgical care. Eva has now her own blog, called Conversations with Eva.

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