IT'S RAINING

The beauty of cats... they’re low maintenance, right? That's what we were thinking shortly after Tag and I started dating. He had become very comfortable with my dog Gracie, and our relationship was shaping up pretty nicely too, and he decided he wanted his own companion at home. Animal lover that he is, cat lover that he's always been, Tag decided he wanted to introduce a feline friend to his life... it would be easy, independent, could be left alone with some food and a clean litter box... unlike Gracie the dog.

Though I'm sure I initially thought "What, me and Gracie aren't enough for you?" I was learning to be a supportive girlfriend and happily perused the online photos of lovely little cats at the Pet Orphans Fund (wonderfully recommended a mutual coworker of ours and remarkable cat owner as well). In exemplary new boyfriend form, Tag invited Gracie and I along for the selection adventure. Previously we had tested the waters by taking Gracie to the pet adoption event at a local pet store to meet some teeny tiny kittens. Harmless, right? Gracie hid... from THEM. Armed with our unexpected new knowledge, we were grateful Pet Orphans Fund was welcoming and understanding of our desire to find a cat who at least tolerated Gracie and were terribly interested in how she might react to a full-grown rescue-able cat. Would tolerance be too much to ask?

In order to view the cats, we left Gracie in the office with an employee and it's funny, now looking back, I can't imagine a situation in which we would have ever done that without fear of her freaking out... or without her actually freaking out... but I suppose in the early days, before her fear aggression, while separation was an issue it must have been manageable. Such a strange memory.

Tag and I perused both cat houses, endured entertaining yet ferocious foot attacks from the resident hunting pack composed of Seamus and Patrick, discovered many of the cats we'd seen online had already been spoken for, but more importantly that there were so many we hadn't seen. We wandered and listened to the volunteer as she pointed out cats and told their stories. Though listening intently, I found myself drawn to a ray of light, literally, and I drifted off from the group... only to discover in that ray of light a calico/tabby cat named Molly.

I picked her up and tucked her, belly up, into my arms. She purred. I scratched her ear. She cooed. I walked her to Tag. She purred.

We had one cat left to see... the office cat. We arranged to have the staff bring both the office cat and Molly to us individually to meet Gracie in the hallway of the office. Office Cat V Gracie Dog — hiss, growl, hiss, growl... avoid. Molly Cat V Gracie Dog — they took one look at each other, looked away and that was it. It certainly was tolerance at first sight. And that was a miracle considering Gracie had hid behind me at the approach of a 4 oz, 8 week old kitten.

We took Molly to Tag's apartment. We took Gracie to Tag's apartment. They kept their distance. We played the name game and settled on Lucy. Gracie hid. Lucy hid. We sat calmly on the bed. Gracie went to sleep. Lucy came out to sleep on our feet. And that was it. Lucy the Cat. Gracie the Dog. Our girls.