tooter

Let me tell you about the love of my life. Her name is Tooter.
She has a crook at the end of her tail, perhaps the result of an infancy accident. She's a bit clumsy, has grey tiger colorings, and her white whiskers are so short they look snipped. I met her when she was four weeks old, and she's now four months. Her litter was abandoned by their mother, and the family i live with took her in two weeks before i arrived. Her official name is Suzie, but at some point she became Tooter...to me, anyway. At first, she could sit on my palm. I realized that being separated from feline companionship at such a tender age could be damaging to her, so i vowed to give her as much loving as i could.
I've never had my own cat...indeed, i've not really had any pet since childhood. It's said that pet-owners live longer lives, and for the first time in my adult life i'm tapping into that reality. When i'm home, she seeks me out. She naps on me, crawls into my lap as i write, sleeps with me when she can, and is always there with a rub or nuzzle. I give her kisses and cuddles. She gets in trouble a little, but how could it be otherwise?
It's been fifteen years since i've had this kind of regular physical intimacy. Back then it was a girl named Meghan. I must say it's been a bit of a revelation. I can feel how the daily intimacy is...healing, i can feel a difference, an effect i can't give a name to. I suspect that most human relationships, even loving ones, never quite achieve that same effect, as human relationships almost always have layers of condition and complication. Maybe the biggest reason we never receive pure love is because we never succeed in purely loving ourselves.
Someday i'll be moving to a new home, and leaving a little kitty behind.
My little Tooter.