Today is the start of Advent, a four-week countdown to Christmas Day.
You may remember paper calendars with little doors, yielding chocolate that tasted like old soap but was nevertheless wonderful.
It is a season of expectation and anticipation.
It is “patience boot camp” for hasty creatures. It comes naturally to heavenly creatures.
By whom, of course, I mean Juel.
Juel has been at Tabby’s Place for several Christmases now, though he is not keeping count.
Until someone invents an Advent calendar with scrambled eggs and mini sausages behind the doors, days and weeks are irrelevant.
What matters is the adventure.
If you have ever looked in the mirror and thought you were too old for adventure, I would advise booking a session with Juel.
He is older than Claymation and more patient than a mall Santa. Although he uses a litter box about as consistently as the average reindeer, he is confident of his place on the Nice List. It is not the Perfect List, which everyone knows is just a blank piece of toilet paper.
Juel has been around longer than snow but still does his own stunts.
Juel’s best stunt is Extreme Adoption.
Adoption is always excellent. We get as merry as carolers when someone wonderful (human) brings home someone wonderful (feline). A cat carrier is the most magical sleigh known to land or sky.
But Extreme Adoption is an adventure best left to the experts.
By whom, of course, I mean all of us.
Extreme Adoption does not put anyone in a carrier. Extreme Adoption involves no change of address. Extreme Adoption is the act of beholding another creature, witnessing their full rumpled weirdness, and announcing: “You are welcome in my life.”
Juel’s Extreme Adoptions date back to his earliest days at Tabby’s Place.
Setting foot in Suite E, he saw his longtime housemate, Shaggy. His first instinct was jubilation. (This is a hunch that should always be followed.)
His eyes spun like pinwheels: “I know that guy! Therefore, I love that guy!”
But Juel had only just begun.
When you proceed on the assumption that everyone is a masterpiece with diamonds between their ear hairs, you live in a state of adventure.
Anticipation is Juel’s vocation, and he approaches cats and humans expecting something wonderful to happen.
Thanks to Juel, Nirvana went from trembling to prancing.*
Thanks to Juel, Magda knows she is someone’s favorite fruitcake, even if she does not trust the species who invented them.
Thanks to Juel, many newcomers snuggle into Tabby’s Place like a comfortable old sweater.
Juel has conducted so many Extreme Adoptions, he could do it in his sleep. Actually, he does do it in his sleep. In between running loop-de-loops, Juel plops like a plum pudding of peace.
The solarium ramp is where he does some of his finest work. Shy cats are drawn to him like kids to the uncle who always has Rolos.
When Juel wakes up to find presents like Davey and Mickey around him, it is better than Christmas morning: “I don’t yet know these guys! Therefore, I am about to love these guys!”
Before we know it, cats who lived in anxiety are softening their shoulders, dropping their guard.
Glowering glaciers turn into tabbies, warm and safe in Juel’s love.
When they see their names in permanent marker on the Nice List, with all the “i’s” dotted with hearts, cats like Mickey and Davey can stop writing love off.
Juel reads his adoptees a new storybook, one they have never heard before, about the best and grandest adventure of all.
It is a true story.
It is worth waiting for.
Do try this at home.
*And onward to his forever home!