who’s the most cutest kitty-witty in the world? #8

This one’s a true story, with only a few embellished details (don’t tell Oprah):

Abby was untamable, as far as anyone knew. She’d been part of a feral litter, but her siblings were adopted and convinced that they liked wearing little pink collars and having their heads scratched. Even though Abby lived in a Good Stable Loving Home for four years, she didn’t trust those human types. And her distrust was only validated when her Good Stable Loving Human said, “To hell with this wild child” and deposited her back at the cattery.

Abby paced her cage, looking fluffy and cuddly in all her gray-and-white glory, brandishing her claws at whoever dared to stereotype about fluffy, cuddly-looking, gray-and-white cats.

One day, though, she heard a sound that made her retract her claws for the smallest moment. A chatty little “meow” from the next cage over.

Even though she knew what might happen if she undermined her hard-earned loner reputation, the voice was so simple and thoughtful that she’d answered back before she got a chance to think about it.

“Meow.”

And so began a correspondence, like MySpace, but lower tech, and for cats. The humans cracked the doors to both cages so that Abby and her neighbor—a compact Siamese named Maya—could talk.

When Abby’s green eyes met Maya’s blue ones, it was love. It wasn’t long before Maya had moved into Abby’s two-story apartment. There may have been a U-Haul involved. They slept curled in each other’s arms. The humans awwwed and said, “Abby was never like this.”

Sometimes it was a strain for Maya—she had to do all the negotiating with the outside world. She felt like she was always explaining to their friends that Abby was really a nice cat, deep down, and she just couldn’t go out tonight because she wasn’t feeling well. Again. Then Maya’s sister Sasha moved in, and living in close quarters with in-laws is always hard.

But eventually all three of them slept in a big, furry, brown and white and gray and black pile. Because what other choice is there? Life is crowded and surprising. Sometimes a human would come by and scoop Maya up in her arms. Maya was okay with this. She even purred. But if the human took her too far from Abby, Maya would start to growl. She knew how to get what she wanted. She’d learned that trick from Abby.