Sometimes a typo is truer than it knows.
Moo Moo was formally “moved to the Lobby.”
But Moo Moo was more accurately “loved to the Lobby.”
What’s an L and an M between friends?
It is one cantankerous keyboard when L and M refuse to be friendly. The “L” in question was Lita, the “M” was Moo Moo, and the situation spelled, “S-O-S.”
Nobody could convince the girls that L and M are the nicest neighbors in the alphabet. There is ample room for two leading ladies.
Could they not see how much they have in common? Moo Moo and Lita are both adorned in autumn colors. They both lost the cozy cardigan of a home, only to be wrapped in the crazy caftan called Tabby’s Place. They are both as loved as if they were the first and last cat in all the aeons and epochs.
They both live their lives in capital letters.
Like most luminaries who think they are enemies, the girls may have too much in common. They are both magnificent cats whose egos exceed the acreage of Eurasia. If they really stopped to think about it, they could have been best friends. They might even have teamed up to take over the world.
Instead, their consonants crashed.
Suite B’s peer mediators were too busy chasing each other’s tails. The school psychologist, Sebastian, was depositing fur mice in the water bowl to see what happens. Something had to be done for love’s sake.
Moo Moo was moved to the Lobby.
This was not a difficult decision. We did not need to chew our cud over pros and cons. Moo Moo might not ever be Lita’s best friend, but she shows promise for becoming the best friend of all other entities. There are twenty-five other letters in the alphabet, not to mention nine million humans, an estimated six hundred million cats, and an unverified number of naked mole rats.
If anyone is capable of befriending naked mole rats, persons wearing taco leggings, and other underappreciated beings, it is Moo Moo.
If you have ever looked at an ordinary dairy cow and thought, “you have compassionate eyes,” (a) I think we just became best friends, and (b) you understand how Moo Moo got her name. Her love is bigger than a bovine. Her heart is as tender as tapioca pudding. When she meets your gaze under those long lashes, all her letters string together into a friendship bracelet.
Moo Moo’s body may outweigh most minivans, but her heart could fit the whole universe inside.
Almost.
So long as your name is not Lita, Moo Moo loves you. But perhaps Lita was Moo Moo’s best friend after all.
When you love like Moo Moo loves, you are hungry all the time. You are always rooting around for someone to root for. Your love is a stadium, and you can’t tolerate empty stands. You need more than Suite B.
You need the Lobby.
Make no mistake. Suite B is swell. But when the music of your soul swells like seventy-seven thousand violins at the sight of each volunteer, you need a bigger stage. Moo Moo was always made for the Lobby, and the Lobby was made for Moo Moo.
In the Tabby’s Place Lobby, an effervescent elder lady can gather grandchildren of two species. Every ear is attentive to Moo Moo’s asthma, and no sour mood is safe from her good attitude. She is the warm buttermilk biscuit of the morning, and the dollop of whipped cream at the end of your hard day. She is lowing and glowing at the chance to collect friends like Scrabble tiles. She is engraving all of our names on her heart. There is plenty of room.
Moo Moo was moved to the Lobby.
And, in the note quickly typed by luminous staff member Kelly, Moo Moo was loved to the Lobby.
Everything we do at Tabby’s Place is a love letter. We are writing a true story. No chapter is complete until every character feels fully loved. We don’t reach the exclamation point until every cat gets to love fully. No two cats give and receive love the same. Every cat is an unrepeatable loveliness.
We get to love them to the locations where they can live largest.
Sometimes this means rearranging cats or the alphabet.
Sometimes it means taking typos at their word, because love is at the keyboard.
Welcome to the Lobby, Moo Moo. Oh, and congrats on your adoption, Sebastian and Lita. We love you all more than letters can ever spell.