Furry Friends - Lexie

A friend is pet-sitting a chinchilla. Actually she’s briefly watching him for her sister, who’s taking care of him for the duration of her in-laws’ kitchen renovation; Sammy’s making the rounds. Anyway, he’s a little round gray fluff ball with floppy ears, teensy little paws, and a cute, if jumpy manner.

She’d told me he likes to be scratched behind the ears. While my impulse was to wonder if a jittery rodent would really even notice, I gave it a try. He loved it, leaning into my fingers and softly shutting his eyes. Pets are mesmerizing!

I arrive at Maddie’s with renewed enthusiasm for furry creatures big and small – and am rewarded by making the acquaintance of 5 year old Lexie, a gorgeous and loving lynx point mix. She’s shy, hiding when I open her door, but I soon coax her out for some petting. Her face is striking, tabby markings with huge dilated blue eyes. She’s got soft tan faintly striped sides and dark tabby striped paws and tail.

She’s chinchilla soft too (now that I have a basis for comparison). She purrs happily, rubs, rolls on her side, and in every way shows me her favorite ways to be stroked. She retreats again when I leave, but flatters me by creeping up onto her perch to be able to watch me as I interact with Blitzen, a frisky tan and white boy across the hall.

A grandmother, mom and little boy in a batman shirt go by, reading each name and solemnly admiring the cats. A couple different young moms with babies in arms wander through, all just here to entertain the kids.

A very young man and his out of town girlfriend want to check out kittens. He says he’s lonely in his apartment, and I’m guessing he’s not long away from dorm life. We visit an adorable foursome of tabby kittens, and after playing with them for awhile he decides to take the two feistiest, a brother and sister.

Part of me wants to caution him, say what a huge responsibility this will be, does he have any idea how long 15 or more years is to take care of these cats? But the reality is he knows he wants a pet. I’ve nearly always had cats even in my wilder days; for lots of us pets will invariably be part of our lives. So I happily send them all off to their new life together.