One year ago, on this very day, a little furball came into our home.
Oh, she wasn’t a willing party at all. The moment she spotted an escape route, she put her tiny legs to good use and powered out of the room, out of the house, and into the corridor. It took four adults to finally catch her and bring her back in. Boy, could that cat run.
That was our first glance into the cautious and wary mind of our kitteh.
We named her Coco, because she had rich chocolate stripes and also because I had recently watched Coco Avant Chanel. But it suits her perfectly and gave us the excuse to call her our Coco Beans. She seems to love it too and responds to it.
For the first few monthsthough, she wouldn’ t sleep in our presence. Her eyelids would droop and her eyes could close. But the minute we shifted or made a sound, her eyes would snap open. It was a long while before she would snooze with us around.
I wasn’t sure she would forgive us for bringing Emi home initially. She was really mad at us and refused to go near the bedrooms (where we had stashed Emi) for at least a week. One night, I woke up to find her in our bedroom hissing at her own reflection in the mirror. She wouldn’t come near us, wouldn’t let us pet her head and hid on top of the fridge.
Eventually, she grew used to Emi and went back to being the adorable little brat that we had come to love. She still swipes at you if she doesn’t want you to be stroking her fur, whines persistently outside the bedroom every day and eats my plants. But she also boinks my head with hers whenever she is in a good mood, purrs contentedly when she is simply sitting on our bed, trots out of the room when we tell her to and still waits for us on top of the oven every night when we come home.
One year ago, Coco not only came into our home, she also entered our hearts.
Yannisms 