WISPS: KATIE’S BIRTHDAY

Katie Kane, a feline, turned six today, well I made up her birthday because we just knew her approximate age when she came --- 9 months.

I put her birthday on March 19, St. Joseph’s Day as he was a gentle man, hard-working, humble, seemingly most kind and I always felt he got short shrift in the publicity department of the Catholic Church.

I can still see her the first night I took her in as a foster over the Christmas holiday. She was so terrified when I took her out of her carrier, her beautiful face read ‘fear.’

Then, the next I saw her, she was on a really cold window sill, again looking terrified but so beautiful (I had not really seen her at the foster agency, there were rows and rows of cats). She had tabby markings which I always love interlaced with orange, a white breast and golden eyes. Behind and below this gorgeous creature, were Christmas lights from the yards of my Brooklyn neighbors. I will never forget her that first evening with the glow of tree lights behind her. But, afterwards she would hide for 11 days. We never did get a tree that year.

In late January, I wrote a letter that I would give the agency when I took her back. I felt that she needed someone around more, I was working out of the house a lot then; she, maybe. needed a family, not just one person. But, I never delivered either the letter or the cat. Instead I went into Manhattan one late Sunday afternoon, paid a small fee and came home with a free bag IAMS cat food they awarded me upon her official adoption.

What a change over the years --- sometimes I wish she were less affectionate when I’m busy or want to sleep and she comes up beside me to get petted. But, not really. She purrs now, she didn’t for the longest time. She lets you know what she wants; she’s playful and mischievous in her play. She pushes various balls around the floor and has lost two red clown noses that she adored over and over again. I loved my first clown nose and still have no idea how she got it off that shelf.

She is scrumptious, gorgeous, relaxed, sometimes a little too relaxed --- she lies on her back showing her whole snowy white stomach with her feet up in the air --- open and vulnerable. Her paws have the palest of pink pads.

Mostly, Katie loves her windows looking down over different parts of Brooklyn. She patrols the street in front and gets upset with the sweepers and scampers off. In the very early morning, she is always at a side window looking east towards Prospect Park. She looks out over yards full of plants and flowers while birds chirp up a storm. She is silent and meditative early morning and hardly notices me when I walk by.

She seems totally in touch with the new day, with nature, the sunrise and the glorious quiet and as she turns towards me, she hands it over to me --- THE SACRED GIFT OF ANOTHER MORNING.

MPKane as read at Bodega Wine Bar, Sunday, April 01, 2012 to a brilliant and responsive audience.