She had to leave Queens, but she was not dethroned.
She lost her home, but not her place among the precious.
And she goes by Stormiee, but the forecast is bright.
Stormiee’s body type is “The Sun in a Child’s Drawing.”
Although she is a cat of average size, her face fills the page. Her round face could go incognito on a shelf of Care Bears. Her cheeks could accommodate the population of Iowa and still have room for a few meatballs.
You look at Stormiee, and you instinctively want to protect her. This cat should have a life as soft as her face.
But Stormiee was not born in a bubble, and sharp times have pierced her peace.
She once had a home in the New York borough named for royalty. But Stormiee had persistent “precipitation” outside the litter box, and her family grew weary. She soon felt the rain of goodbye.
At a city shelter, “inappropriate elimination” is a dangerous forecast. Adopters shy away from cats known for this behavior, and time was not on Stormiee’s side.
But the weather can change while the rain is still falling.
Tabby’s Place is a rainbow umbrella for grey cats with grim chances.
The paperwork said we were supposed to take a different cat that day. That cat was deluged with his own desperation, scanning the sky for divine intervention. But before we could get to him, he was adopted!
Miracles tend to invite their friends over for dinner, and we suddenly had a break in the clouds. We asked the shelter to send us whoever needed Tabby’s Place most.
We received more than we asked.
We received a queen with cheeks like a cherub and blue sky in her soul.
We received Stormiee, the cat who was not in our forecast.
Meteorologists and curmudgeons call this a “coincidence.” But I would rather consult the children, who draw the sun as round as a cat’s face.
They would tell us that Stormiee was meant to be ours. The moon and sun and even those cranky old clouds all got together and agreed: this one was a Tabby’s Place cat. No doubt about it.
And so, Stormiee arrived as our sunbeam.
Meek as mist with other cats, and kind as daybreak with humans, she shines without glaring and loves without fear. We had no forecast for when or if she will find a forever home.
But to no one’s surprise, the light of Stormiee’s life came quickly.
Our little lady now shines for the adopter she was meant to love forever.
And the cat who looks like she is smiling … doesn’t just “look like” she is smiling anymore.