CHAPTER FOUR
SURPRISE—YOURSELF!—PRINCE
CHARMING PICKS A CAT
(18th
installment, Scruggs and Samantha, by
Mary de la Pena)
After Prince Charming met the
scraggy golden dog, I got to enjoy watching my husband laugh at the antics of
the dog named Scruggs. But, never one to
leave things alone, I used that moment to push my luck a little farther.
“As long as we’re here,” I said, “can we look at the
kittens?”
Shaking his head, my husband answered, “I should have known
there would be more. We might as well
get this over with. Show me the cats.”
We left the large-dog runs and went back into the rooms
holding the multiple tiers of cat cages.
In the two days since I had been there, the population had swelled. There were even more kittens and full-grown
cats stuffed in the cages. But
heartbreakingly enough, many of the cats I had seen earlier were gone. I almost started to cry, forgetting the
recent joy of seeing Scruggs and my husband form their bond.
I let go of my husband’s hand to let him walk the aisles of
cages holding the cats and kittens. It
was his turn to have the needy little ones pull at his sleeve and press against
his psyche as he passed by them. He
looked into each cage and wiggled his fingers at some of the kittens. Gently he called to some of the more
reluctant cats that sat at the back of their cages. I did not interfere. I let him look and see if he made any choices
without my input.
Finally he turned to me.
“There are so many,” he said, sadness coloring his voice. “How do you choose?”
“I like the little black one,” I answered, pointing a tiny
female kitten with copper-colored eyes.
He gave her a cursory look, but continued looking up and
down the cages again, finally stopping in front of a beautiful brown calico
kitten sleeping at the front of her cage.
She came to him when he wiggled his fingers and started a round of loud
purring.
“This one,” he said, stroking her fur. “Feel how soft she
is.”
I couldn’t help but smile.
He was making a concerted effort to be part of the process of enlarging
our family. A warm glow began to grow in
the center of my being. I realized that
he wanted me to be happy and, if adopting an animal would do it, then he was on
board with it.
I looked more closely at the kitten he had chosen She was beautiful with rabbit-soft fur and
china-blue eyes, reminding me of a cat I had gotten long ago for my daughters
when they were small. Ralphie had been
the joy of their lives. He was patient, sweet, and completely unflappable--the
perfect cat for small children. The
kitten had his same white, tan, and dark brown coloring, the same soft fur, and
the same piercing blue eyes.
As I turned away from her, I couldn’t help but see the small
black kitten I had seen the day before.
She was playing with an invisible piece of lint, scampering and
skittering around her cage. Briefly I
ran my fingers across her cage door. But, as I watched my newly re-emerging
Prince Charming, I saw the light in his eyes as he stroked the kitten he had
chosen. Quickly I turned away from the black kitten, afraid of letting her get
too close to my heart.
Sometimes choices and trade-offs are made to cement a
relationship. I knew my husband was
trying hard to please me because he saw how important the dog I had found was
to me. It was time for me to relent and
give back. The black kitten was not finding a home with me. I needed to let my husband, my Prince
Charming, have what he wanted—and maybe even needed.
Then I felt it again.
The funny stirring in my chest, almost as if I were struggling to
breathe. I caught my breath and then
looked at my husband. I began to smile as I realized how handsome he was, how
kind he was, and how lucky I was to have him in my life.
“Aha,” I thought to myself.
“There it is. I knew love was in there somewhere.”
Without a backward glance at the black kitten, I turned to
my husband. “Okay,” I said. “You let me have Scruggs, and you get to have
the kitten of your choice.”
“Done,” he said, shaking my
hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment