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Elton’s still standing

Elton’s still standing

Noun: Friend

Meaning: Someone who defends you when you’re not in the room.

Example: “Elton is a true friend.”

This is a considerable understatement.

Elton is a better friend than all six friends on Friends. Elton’s fur is made exclusively of tiny grey friendship bracelets. (It’s true. Our vet team can confirm.)

And, if all your other friends tumble down the stairs into a lair and become archenemies, you will find that Elton’s still standing.

This is all the more poignant if you know the rutty yellow-brick road that brought Elton here.

When Elton was a kitten, he made a request of life. He did not ask for fame or riches. He did not request Cornish hens, or pepperonis sized like semi trucks.

His only plea: “don’t go breaking my heart.”

But life does not cool its jets just because a little silver rocket man asks nicely. Elton was wounded, in flesh and spirit. His neck was gashed, his light was flickering, and his home was a feral fellowship of candles in the wind.

So Elton did what the bravest and best always do.

He resolved to befriend life, whether or not it would return the favor.

He made another request: “May I retain my ‘un-neutered’ status?” (Again, the answer was “no.”)

He even forgave life for this.

He also assembled “The Jets.”

You may know them. You will find them in the Feral Room at Tabby’s Place. They are the expatriated citizens of a sickly feral colony. They are safe, for the first time in their lives, but they’re not taking our word for it.

They are a gospel choir hesitant to say “hallelujah” out loud, just in case they jinx it. They are Nirvana and Weston, Georgia and Ganache, Chaz and Elton.

At least, they were Elton.

Survivors of the same scrappy circumstances, the band got back together at Tabby’s Place. We settled them in our Feral Room, where they could stretch, sigh, and settle down.

They had each other. They had our promise that we would not let the sun go down on them without “I love you’s.” They could not feel the love tonight, but that was alright. At Tabby’s Place, “friendship” is a synonym for “time.” The Jets had just acquired an infinite supply of both.

Progress was slow.

A cat does not go from counting his own ribs to lolling in your lap without several soliloquies in between.

Weston wiggled into a wad of worry. Nirvana attempted to nestle under his own head. Georgia felt like a very tiny dancer on a strange stage. Ganache worried that our kindness was a thin layer of frosting over a cold, cold heart.

They shot like Roman candles under the crates when we entered the room.

But then, Elton announced he was ready for life’s next room.

Ganache

When you are a Tabby’s Place cat, everything conspires to sing your song. Love is equally proficient in the pop of head-bonks and the hard rock of the red laser dot. Love can even sing in silence, tenacious minutes of peace and presence. There is only the comforting chime of the eye-blink, a grandfather clock keeping time and holding space for a cat cowering under a crate.

But when you believe in love, you can’t cower anymore, not even if you try.

Elton emerged.

Elton allowed himself to get excited.

Weston

Elton accepted the big surprise: life had granted his request after all.

A broken heart can be mended, when friendship travels time.

So the little grey rocket man went where no Jet had flown before. Elton moved to Suite E. Elton chortled among cats who had never seen the colony. Elton’s heart expanded eleven times in size.

But Elton keeps talking about his friends.

Elton’s courage is the down payment on their finally feeling at home.

Elton plays the promise that every cat is worth the wait, and every dawn is worth the weeping.

Elton can feel the love tonight.

Elton will need every love song he can get. His kidneys, it seems, are fair-weather friends. Every good day is the first day of his life. Behind all his Grammys is a grandfather cat who never gave up.

Neither will we. Friends never do.

Elton believed us first, but we believe the best is yet to come for every jittery Jet.

We will learn their music.

They will learn they cannot lose our love.

We cannot erase the hungry years, but we can fill every hour. We will fold the past into the future, in one blessed burrito of the hopeful and the held.

I guess that’s why they call it rock and roll.

1 thought on “Elton’s still standing

  1. Thank you Tabby’s Place for loving the kitties that may not let you pet them for years. To look at these cats, neutered and cared for, is the big reward in itself. And you never know when some kitty may come to rub your leg as you dish out breakfast. And Elton demonstrates that love is always the winner.

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