Is 11 the new 1? Is age just a number? Might the kitty fountain in the Community Room be the actual fountain of youth?

Beats me, but clearly the unimpeachable Peachy is just getting better with age.

Grady’s girl has always had a youthful glow, but in the past few weeks, she seems to be downright rewinding. I don’t know if it’s something in the air that only flame-point Siamese cats can sense, or maybe the influence of perpetual kitten Tashi, but Peachy is apparently having a second kittenhood.

Maybe it started when we moved all the furniture around Peachy’s unofficial abode, the Community Room. (You’ll recall that Peachy technically lives in the Lobby. However, Peachy is never in the Lobby.) With all the shifted furniture, the Peachable One took to claiming what had once been elder statescat Hillary‘s golden basket. There was a certain giddiness in her doing so, and it put a mischevious twinkle in those blue eyes that just didn’t quit.

That was just the beginning.

Then came the decidedly childlike squeaking. S, one of our longtime volunteers, refers to this chatterbox behavior as Peachy’s “fussing,” and will periodically either tell her to stop fussing or ask why she’s fussing. Naturally, Peachy sees no good reason to comply, and just keeps on chattering.

But the best evidence of Peachy’s rewinding is on display during each day’s morning meeting. As staff and volunteers gather around the Community Room table, Peachy’s kitten reflexes leap into action. A pen cap, a cat toy, Hillary’s tail – any convenient object will do, as Peachy gleefully begins playing, spinning around and chattering. Just this morning, the Peachable One became a bit too zealous and sent a bottle cap skittering off the table.

“Peachy won’t go get it. She’s too lazy,” Jonathan joked. And, at first, he seemed to be right. Peachy, perhaps momentarily remembering that she’s 11 years old, looked disdainfully after the bottle cap, then turned her attention to a “Rosie Rat” toy still on the table.

But then…Kitten Peachy took over. The bottle cap would not have the last word. Down to the floor and halfway across the room she flew, tail flashing, until that bottle cap was hers. Naturally, this was all in view of a platoon of volunteers and Peachy’s ever-adoring staff. (Yes, Peachy’s staff. We never forget why we’re here.)

So is she rewinding, or does she simply know how to work a room?

If I know the Peachable One as well as I think I do, I’d venture to say…both. 🙂

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