When is a Persian not a Persian?

When Persia is now Iran, and besides, she’s Kuwaiti anyway.

There is no universe in which Sketch is a Persian cat. She has short hair; she bears no resemblance to Wilford Brimley; she was born in Kuwait.

But in the tangled bramble of truthiness that is The Internets, Sketch half-passed for something half-Persian. With her undeniably smushy face, she inevitably invited emails asking questions like, “Is she one of those short-hair Persians?”

(Answer: No. Also, there is no such thing. Also, no.)

Sketch does look as though, in early kittenhood, she ran too hard and too fast into a wall or a door or a rhinoceros. Her perfect pink nose is ever so slightly scrunched into her face, giving her the look of either a fancy or a funny cat. Actually, both.

But if you stop short at Sketch’s smushed nose, you’ve shorted yourself of her real charms. Painfully cute though she is — you know I caught you swooning — Sketch’s adorability is her least impressive ability.

Sketch is an international acrobat.
She’s a loud, gifted singer. Also loud.
She’s a connoisseur of comfort, a paragon of play, and the head of Tabby’s Place’s Quality Control Department when it comes to evaluating human calves. (Method: rub vigorously and ceaselessly. Ensure that leg does not actually erode from force of cat-head-bunting. Resume rubbing.)

Sketch, with her singsong meow and her “I do not hear ‘no'” attitude to affection, is one of the cats carrying us through These Hard Times. Fortunately for Sketch, we’re all too happy to carry her around her suite and offer our patient calves for rigorous rubbing.

Unfortunately for us, Sketch is on hold to be adopted. Soon enough, socially distanced adopters will abscond with the Kuwaiti kitten-face who merries up even melancholy days.

But don’t feel too badly for us. Something has been indelibly etched on our inmost being. Sketch shouts a truly true truth: snub-nosed or short-changed on life, we can all still choose and claim and clamor for joy.

In the words of one of the actual Coolest Human Beings Who Ever Lived, “Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away.”

Even death.
Even pandemic.
Even the farthest reaches of the unimaginable.

Let’s not let forgetfulness erase this sketch, kittens. Tattoo it on your heart; scrunch your nose and select “hope” today, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Happy trails, sweet Sketch — and thank you.

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