And Venus Was Her Name

Mom wanted to get me a cat for my birthday (tomorrow!). A few days ago, she picked up a newspaper, which she very rarely reads, and opened it to some random page. On that page was a black and white picture of a Siamese cat available for adoption from a shelter about 30 minutes away. They named her Venus and she was 2 years old. Very affectionate, but didn’t care for dogs, they said.

I said, “I’ll bet someone has already adopted her. She’s gorgeous!” We called the shelter, expecting to hear that she had indeed been adopted. Instead, we were thrilled to hear that she was still there. Someone put a hold on her a few days ago, but called and took it off earlier that morning.

We jumped at the opportunity and arrived at the shelter a few minutes before it opened. We were taken back to see her. She was sitting calmly in her cage, surrounded by cages with cats who were meowing, rubbing their bodies against the bars of their cages, and reaching their arms as far out of their cages as they could, trying to grab me. We were allowed to open the door to Venus’ cage. I stuck my hand in to pet her. She rolled around affectionately for a bit before rolling onto her back to show me her belly. She licked my hand and then laid down with her head in my hand.

I stayed with her while mom filled out the paperwork, secretly afraid that someone else would adopt her before I could. Several couples passed by her cage, “Look at the Siamese! Now that’s a beautiful cat!”, but they quickly shifted their attention to the cats who were enthusiastically thrusting their arms out, crying for attention.

She was so well-behaved in the car; it was as if we didn’t even have a cat in a carrier in the back seat of our car. She protested for a few minutes after first getting her into the carrier, but she calmed down and sat with her paws tucked under for the rest of the ride home.

As soon as we got home, we let her out to explore her new home, which she did with almost fearless curiosity. I had to lay down and take meds almost immediately, because apparently being upright for two hours is Unacceptable. Just as I was thinking that I should lay down in the living room instead so we could get a chance to bond more, she ran into my bedroom, jumped up onto my bed, and curled up on my chest, purring and laying her head on my cheek. We fell asleep and stayed that way for a few hours.

She is so affectionate. She loves to curl up under the covers. She gives kisses. She wags her tail like a dog. Looking at her is like looking back in time at Sienna; being reminded of how Si-Si looked about 7 years ago. She’s pretty vocal, but in quantity rather than volume. She has attached herself to me, literally. She does not like to be separated from me – she cried when I left the bedroom to get a drink. She’s asleep on top of the monitor right now.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Day Before Ioma’s Birthday, EH-HEM, I mean Valentine’s Day.