Sweet Girls - Mew Mew

The first person I see at Maddie’s has her potential pet all picked out. She wants to meet Princess, a mellow young solid black kitty. The woman explains that she has a poodle at home. He likes cats from living with her former cat, who died last year at 18. She says she always had cats before but this dog is great and she can’t imagine being without him. Princess is friendly and calm, and seems like she could do ok with a big brother.

The woman goes to the front desk, and I head for hallway 5. Ok, we’re not supposed to play favorites, and all the animals at the shelter deserve good loving homes. But everybody’s still pulling for Maya, the devoted tabby lap girl; she gets one or more visits a day even when other cats are skipped.

And I’ve gotten mighty attached to sweet soft Mew Mew, who resides across the hall from her. She’s a five year old calico with swirling tabby markings and an odd tan and white face that at first seems unusual, then upon reflection is gorgeous. Her photo does not do her justice; this is a face you’d want to – and surely would, every morning – wake up to. She’s bunny soft and a huggy little neck nuzzler.

She definitely needs people who are into physical affection. She starts on my lap, all happy and purring, then slithers up my chest to nibble at my hair and neck before puddling back into my lap, limp and twisting around for a belly rub. She arrived here from Elko in March, and I’m surprised she wasn’t scooped up right away. One of her other regular volunteer visitors puts a big heart by their initials each time on her visit log.

I cross the hall to sit with Maya. We watch Mew Mew scamper around her condo after a toy, then interacting with one, then another young woman who is wandering around. She sits perkily at the door, but neither one stops.

There’s another sweet lap cat next door, a tortie named Gretle. As I sit cross legged, stroking her, Mew Mew hops up to the window between the condos and crouches, leaning into the glass. She’s partly watching the bird’s on Gretle’s TV, and partly looking longingly at me, as if willing me to come back and pet her some more.

An older gentleman enters the hallway and pauses, gazing at all three of us with a big smile. I think we just made his day.