Happy endings do happen – even for the dorks and downtrodden.

Charlie Brown does get to hold hands with the little red-haired girl, even if Lucy never lets him kick the football. William Hung does get a record deal, even if he’s not on anyone’s list of Greatest Vocalists of All Time.

And Joe does get his forever home, even if he never did feel quite at home with his Tabby’s Place roomies.

We should have known we had someone special on the line when JoeMama first said, “I’m interested in a black cat.” Infuriating though it may be, there’s no denying that people gravitate away from black cats. This is as inexplicable as the fact that we don’t take siestas in the United States, or that no one ever wrote a rock opera about squid. Sadly, it’s true – and so people with special hearts for black cats tend to be special people.

But JoeMama hadn’t finished her onslaught of specialness. She went on to add, in describing her dream-cat, “I’d prefer one with Special Needs, or one who most people overlook.”

And she’d already spun her short list: “Probably either Bialy or Joe.”

Bialy, as you may recall, has hydrocephalus and a very unknown future (surgery? medication? enlistment in the Navy?). Joe, as you may recall, has a tendency to be afraid of everything made.

Er…make that had a tendency.

Once they met, Joe and his soon-to-be AwesomeAdopters – JoeMama and JoePapa – had one of those connections. The rest of the world stopped. Joe and his new kin started moving in slow motion. Mango started meowing “Some Enchanted Evening.” (OK, I made that up. He actually started meowing “Fat Bottom Girls.”) Next thing they knew, JoeMama and JoePapa just couldn’t stay away. They promptly put Joe on hold to adopt him, and counted the hours until he would be their very own Charlie Brown cat, now and forever.

Today, Joe’s in his forever home, and his old fearful tendencies are as obsolete as slap bracelets and eight-track. Fear? What’s that? When you have a family that loves you this much and has an insta-bond this deep, you never need to be afraid, ever again. Perfect love, as they say, casts out all fear.

Lest Joe should fear that he might somehow lose his family’s love – it does, after all, seem too good to be true – they’re reassuring him profusely. Just today, JoeMama called me to share a case in point. In these first few days Casa Forever, Joe is cozily ensconced in a private suite, so he can get used to his humans before meeting their other six cats. JoePapa and JoeMama have been enjoying much mooshing with their boy, but they were concerned that he might become lonesome at night. After all, though he’d never been part of the feline in-crowd at Tabby’s Place, he did have other cats around at all times.

JoePapa had the perfect solution: Joe didn’t need to snooze alone. JoePapa happily took his (JoePapa’s) pillow, lay down on the floor in Joe’s room, and made himself comfortable for the night.

Methinks that JoePapa and JoeMama are making Joe comfortable for more than just a night. (Me also thinks that JoePapa is a strong contender for Cat Man Of The Year.)

And so the miracle happens. When it comes to unconditional love, a certain black cat and his forever family are anything but average Joes.

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