Pansy, the Wonder Cat

Penny and I went to the pound sometime around 2014. We were there for at least a couple of hours spent looking for one perfect purring pussycat. Pansy hardly purrs but she is quite perfect. We chose her after endless deliberation because one of her front paws was reaching down to comfort a kitten in the cage below, and that baby feline was reaching upward to touch Pansy with her front paw. We were elated to find such a wondrous creature but terribly sad for all the other kitties we couldn’t take home. Many tears were shed there as we looked into the cages and saw such beautiful animals that needed the kind of loving care we could give. Pansy looked like one of the most desperate. She was bone thin but obviously had been separated from a litter of her own but was not being fed regularly and had to fend for herself. Her coat, which is so lustrous and colorful now was dull and lifeless and very unattractive. But from a group of at least 30 cats, we finally knew who we wanted to take home. Pansy was so maternal with that baby. So we took them both. But as life progressed out of that prison, Dandelion ate some baby’s breath and didn’t make it past a year in Manhattan Beach splendor. It is deadly poison for a cat, which she learned the hard way.
My sister was quite devastated about it but in time Pansy became the reigning queen of the beach castle and has been so ever since. Not that she wasn’t that before, but she graduated into being the only cat. A moniker she has enjoyed fully since her little playmate left. But she’s still so motherly and especially friendly and careful with little children. It Is obvious to us that Pansy suffered during her life and she remembers being without security and food. So she frequently asks as she waits by her bowl for a little more.
Somehow, we take walkies with her every day. She’s good that way and tries to keep up mostly. Yesterday after our excursion around the block with John, Penny and I tried following the elusive kitty, who kept going in and out of the bushes depending on the number of dogs in the area. She seemed to be posing near the plants she loves to nibble on in the front garden bed. In a matter of about two or three minutes I got a bunch of revealing poses showing the range of her saber-toothed mouth cavity as she munches on her favorite grasses. I have owned at least a hundred cats but never have I seen any of them baring their front teeth like this before.
Now, it’s late and she’s fast asleep in her chair but when she’s outside she assumes a myriad of poses as she rolls around on the ground or sits with her front feet together waiting for cues from the nearest admirer. And I must admit that she has many from this block alone that she visits on her ‘route’ in the morning.
I’m so glad that she’s here keeping my sister company and it doesn’t hurt that we’re all in love with her and at her beck and call.
“Coming, Pansy.”