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Waltz of the flowers

Waltz of the flowers

120703-pansy-1-radioactiveThey tell me it’s been a “mild” winter. They tell me the globe is warming. They tell me a lot of things.

I tell them: bollocks.

Daisy
Daisy

Mild or not, I know I’m not the only one aching for spring. And by “aching,” I mean “getting so excited by the tulips in ShopRite that I hold their tender petals against my cheek and swoon until security has to escort me away.”

But here’s the miracle: spring always comes. Morning always comes.

Flowers always arrive.

And this almost-spring, the flowers are in fully fabulous bloom at Tabby’s Place.

Gerber and her girls first sprung up at Tabby’s Place, by way of Georgia, around a year ago. They were all so cute, so fresh and so year-round-springy that we were optimistic they’d be adopted in rapid succession.

Mama Gerber started the charge, getting us excited that her adolescent daughters would follow suit. But if there’s one thing that adolescents of any species do excellently, that’s not following their parents.

Petunia, as captured by Jess
Petunia, as captured by Jess

Daisy, Violet, Pansy and Petunia weren’t going anywhere.

Seasons changed. The Flower Girls sweetened. Daisy’s face got cuter and pointier every day. Petunia and Pansy let us start touching them, then got to the point where they wouldn’t let us not touch them. Jonathan even stopped inserting an “n” in Violet’s name. (True confession: Violet is my favorite Flower Girl. True confession deux: as the lucky writer who doesn’t have to Do Mean Things To Cats For Their Own Good, I never had to medicate Viole[n]t. Yes, these facts may be related.)

Summer shivered into autumn. We weathered a superstorm and an election and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s decision to change his name to Snoop Lion. Time passed. Adopters kept plucking from other gardens.

But spring comes. Spring always comes.

Violet the magnificent, by Jess
Violet the magnificent, by Jess

Petunia was first. As the trailblazing blossom, she made sure to get adopted in a big, beautiful way. Not content with just any adopters, she set her sights on one of the awesomest families ever to grace our place. Mr. and Mrs. Magnificent had previously adopted Skye. At the time of the Magnificents’ first visit to Tabby’s Place, rotund and raven-hued Skye was the cat who had been with us for the longest unbroken stay. Nearly untouchable and startlingly beautiful, she’d come into bloom thanks to the patient love of volunteer P.D. With the Magnificents, she found her forever springtime.

Now they were ready for another feline miracle…and Petunia was ready for them.

Not one to be upstaged by her sister, petite Pansy was next. Once the most timid of all Flower Girls, she’d come to demand attention. The instant you entered Suite A, Pansy’s presence would scream, sunflower-bright. I’m heeeeeeeeeere! Love me! Do eeeeeeet nowwwww! And you would. Oh, you would.

Pansy by Jess
Pansy by Jess

Now she’s sunning it up forever-home style.

That leaves the freshest Flower Girls, torbie sparks known as much for their fire as for their sweetness. Daisy has a decidedly Mae West edge, and Violet…well, there’s nothing shrinking about her. These wild Flowers are still with us.

But can anyone doubt that spring – and adoption – are on the march? Watch this blog for inevitable waltzing.

3 thoughts on “Waltz of the flowers

  1. What beautiful kitties! I went back and read the story of Skye learning to love with volunteer P.D. Thanks to all for a story that puts a smile on my heart!

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