But there’s a hope that’s waiting for you in the dark….
You should know you’re beautiful just the way you are….(Alessia Cara)
You’ve all hard of the ♣Life of Riley ♣ …but what about the Life of Charlie…like a fine wine, I just get better…. to myself, to the Four Footed (who were assigned by unknown entities to share my World)…and to Momma and Wonder Boy, notwithstanding. Just don’t be popping the cork any time soon… let me ferment a bit more …let me grow, expand my possibilities because like…who knew…there were actually souls with beating ♥’s who would bond with me without ulterior motives…like who knew?
Y’all know when it started…the very day the planets aligned and Cat Mandu found her Pink Cloud to Paradise, where she no longer could feed my paranoia…truth be told, after Cat Mandu was Gone, Baby, Gone, she dropped by on occasion, urging me to make nice, not hideout in the crawl space like an illegal alien avoiding immigration officers.
I was a hot mess. My calico raccoon fur was unkempt with humps of fur growing like foreign entities of questionable origins, all over my back. My legs were arthritic from the damp and coolness of the basement and the extra weight I carried from spending too much time eating because, well, face it, I was sick and tired of being…well, me!
Now this was no Miracle on 34th Street – there was no Courtroom, no prosecutor, no defendant, no judge and no jury. It was just uphill, steady little steps, discovering that apparently I was lovable…Momma fussed over me…Wonder Boy brushed and brushed my coat, then took scissors to the humps of fur…all of a sudden I was respectable looking…I could hold my head high among my Four Footed Frenemies…until they became…friends actually.
Diva Calico Gen, who grooms the Ultimate Earth Dog Jakita, put me on her Calendar rotation, grooming me as well, daily…so I bellied on up to the bar and started helping groom Gen and Jakita…not so much Bad Boy Andy…although we can now meet at the food dish and I don’t snarl at him….oh, sometimes he’ll tease Gen and me, chase us a bit, to get the blood pumping but he can not help it…he’s got a reputation to maintain…Born to be Bad.
I am thinking I’ll probably never win an Oscar.… even a Feline Oscar but if I did, I am so ready with my speech…to thank Cat Mandu for insisting post-mortem, ‘Change is good’, for the Four Footed Feral that forgave my past transgressions and embraced the New and Improved Charlie, to Wonder Boy who so patiently brushed and snipped until I was no longer a raccoon and to Momma, who brought me home and never gave up hope that I would one day come to appreciate the Cat I was Meant to Be…my life lesson was:
But there’s a hope that’s waiting for you in the dark…You should know you’re beautiful just the way you are….(Alessia Cara)
