There are cats too dignified to use exclamation points.
There are cats too ecstatic to use less than five exclamation points!!!!!
And then there are cats who dot exclamation points with hearts.
Meet Polka.
Like all cats, Polka is comfortable with paradox. Human beings huddle in cubbies of “either/or,” but the smallest cat is large enough for “both/and.”
For instance, who’s to say that feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is not both a setback and a springboard?
If not for FeLV, Polka would not have strayed into a “hopeless situation.” There are few shelters for cats with those four letters after their names.
But that little word — “few” — is fat enough for both peril and possibility. If he were not infected with that rude retrovirus, Polka would never have barreled into Tabby’s Place.
You’re starting to see it now, right?
Polka can prove that “both/and” is the architecture of the universe.
Just think of the people who connected the dots of his rescue. His rescuer was both human and selfless. She was both big enough to change the world, and small enough to crouch to a cat’s height.
Then there is Polka’s foster mom. Polka can’t say enough about his foster mom, and he overflows with exclamation points just thinking about her. Her smile is both presence and promise. Her home was both resting place and revelation: there is room enough for all. Her care was both practical and profound. Never underestimate the dignity of scooping someone’s litter box.
Love accepted the cat with the unacceptable diagnosis. It was both impossible and unconditional. It is not of this world, and it is exactly what this world was meant to be.
As love looked at Polka, and Polka looked back at love, he noticed something. An ordinary life is both the safest nest and the most thrilling adventure. Routine is both predictable and spectacular.
And every exclamation point is just a polka dot with a tail.
Polka intends to dot each one with a heart.
In the encyclopedia of affection, Polka is a run-on sentence. He has no guardrails around his goodness, because he is no longer afraid of running short. The largeness of love convinced him that he can both spend one hundred percent of his bliss today and wake up with one hundred percent of his bliss available tomorrow.
He is a little dorky about it. No, that’s not right. He is a lot dorky about it. He has exceeded the legal limits of dorky in thirty-eight states. Fortunately, this is New Jersey.
Besides: who’s to say you can’t be the world’s most delirious dork and cooler than thirty George Clooneys?
A dork is an average creature turned electric by enthusiasm. A dork is the one species brave enough to be excited about whatever their big heart loves, whether that is Star Trek: the Next Generation, rad accordion solos, or life itself.
If you meet someone who is genuinely glad to be here, you are likely in the presence of a dork (which suggests George Clooney may be one of us after all).
Such thoughts come naturally to a cat who is pure black because he contains all colors.
Polka is both an “Advanced Needs” cat, and an advanced scholar of sweetness.
We are here to love this little cat and to grow larger in his light.
Maybe even as large as his heart.
Nothing is impossible.