If you want to hold a camera, you need a director with a steady hand.

If you want to hold a heart, you should cast a trembling cat.

Akira shares her name with legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. The two visionaries share much in common, from a gift for beautiful composition to an admiration for samurai.

But while the filmmaker created epics, the little black cat makes a masterpiece out of the “mundane.”

Akira would not understand that word in any language. True artists never do. “Mundane?” Is that related to “small,” another term with no color?

Akira has not yet seen a creature, a moment, or a single grain of kibble that was “small.”

But ask her about the big screen, and Akira’s face will fill with light. Ah, now we’re talking. Akira can tell you about big scenes, and big animals, and the big story that keeps getting bigger but never ends.

The biggest person Akira ever met was her person. The biggest person is always your person.

Akira’s person loved her so completely, it caused the universe to expand. If you could capture their love on camera, an IMAX screen would show only one millionth of a percent.

Love looks as ordinary as a clean litter box and as dainty as a forehead kiss, but it is more fascinating than neon kangaroos and wider than the Pacific. Akira knew the biggest love.

Akira did not know — until she watched the movie we are still living in — that love is even bigger than the biggest person. When sickness parted Akira and her person, it felt as though the world was about to become very … what’s the word? “Small,” is it?

But this is the part of the story that you have to see to believe. Akira will do her best to describe it for you.

Love leapt walls and worlds to get Akira to Tabby’s Place. Love grew so large, it broke its own heart to save her life.

Love made one average-sized black cat the center of the world.

It looked so ordinary. It looked like everyday people declaring that today was no regular day. Today was the day Akira became our Akira.

The major motion picture commenced, complete with squeeze-salmon, and polka dot blankets, and unscripted declarations of unending adoration.

Love’s promises were as large as ever.

That was a plot twist not even Akira saw coming.

As Akira recaps the movie — although she is starting to think we are still just in the opening credits — the ends of her feathery black hairs start to sizzle like live wires.

You may notice for the first time that the skin on her ears is a little ragged, with pink skin parting the black silk. Akira trembles every time she tells you something big. Akira trembles much of the time.

This is the storyline Akira always forgets. Akira is an “advanced needs cat.”

Skin allergies and neurological symptoms are “small” things, really — is that the right use of the word? But anything littler than love trips over these plot holes.

Only the mundane miracle of mercy is big enough for a cat like Akira.

Fortunately, we are all a bunch of unknowns and ordinaries in this movie.

Just take it from Akira.

The best part is still coming.

You will want to see it for yourself.

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