This is not a writing themed post.

See this cat? This is my cat. Tabitha.

She's getting on now. You can't tell. She's still the same as she was eleven years ago.

Have your seen her expression? That's her 'tolerating humans' face. Tabitha dislikes being picked up. She does love to curl up on your lap, but only on her time and terms. She constantly nags. She doesn't know what she wants, but she knows she wants something and that it's my job to provide it. When you tell her to wait or move or get down from in front of the T.V. she meows in a sound that is clearly a 'noooooo.'

Tabitha dislikes all other animals and the majority of humans. It's unfortunate for her that she's so small and cute. Everyone wants to pet her. Usefully, Tabitha is often not quite moving in time with the rest of the world so I get to grab and cuddle her for at least a minute before she realises what's happening.

Once, on a particularly cold day, when the heating was off, I was concerned about her, being as she's so slight. So, I dressed her in a jumper. Yup, put it right over her head, threaded her little arms in like a newborn. Not a peep of fuss. Until she tried to walk. The material dragged on her back legs just a bit. She walked forward. She walked backward. She realised something was wrong. She turned to her brother and hissed in his face. She was pretty sure he caused it. 

Like I said, Tabitha isn't quite moving in time with the rest of us. 

You know what I like best about her? What I really love? I love when her pupils get wide, really wide. Because that's when she manages to make eye contact. Normally, she can never quite find you, her eyes are always looking off to the side. But when those pupils get big...her tiny kitten-cute face gazes up at you like puss-in-boots from Shrek, and you get to see where she is. She's really there and she's so small and so soft and she's choosing to put aside her hate and be there, with you. 

That's my favourite bit. When my little feline ball of hatred manages to look right in my eyes, and all I see is her confused-but-real affection for me, the woman who's loved her since she was but nothing but a tiny tiny ball of fluff. .