Some cats are dainty, with delicate paws and pert ears. Other cats are solid, with meaty toe beans and firm centers. Many Tabby’s Place cats are made of weightier matter.
There have always been a few big cats hanging around the ark that Jonathan built. Alums who specialized in turning up their gravity included the likes of Arlo and Tennison. Both were residents of Suite D. Both were FIV+. Both entirely filled a lap solo. Both preferred filling a lap with companions. Both have long-since been adopted. But, their legacy remains.
Denizen of the lounge, Baby robustly fills out his cat bed. It is sometimes shocking to note when he has actually bothered to move from window seat to cat tree and back again. More shocking still is when the slimmed-down, merely 18lb titan of a tabby wanders the floor in search of a meal. Baby used to be bigger. He was perfect then; he is perfect now. So what if he remains on the heavy side. Weight doesn’t keep Baby from participating in the community outreach program Aged to Purrfection. His current size might be daunting to a volunteer who needs to coax Baby into a carrier to bring him on visits, but there’s plenty of wiggle room in a decent-sized carrier to suit the gentle giant.
Over in Suite E, Juel, like Baby, is living large and loving life. Officially, he is a medium-sized cat. Unofficially, this lap has held all of Juel, and the lap begs to differ. In all fairness, Juel is absolutely perfect, even if he has a propensity to eliminate waste in inappropriate locations and is also apt to sneeze in the face of a friend. Technicalities. There’s wiggle room between actual fact and actual experience of a cat whose weight has very much to do with exactly how deeply he is able to relax while enjoying the attention of a brush-wielding volunteer.
Such is also the way with another heavy hitter. Marching down the hall, through a door, down another hall, and through two more doors, will lead to where Tux reigns with all the dignity bestowed by the weight of his years. As a super-senior (20!!!), Tux shoulders his burdens lightly. He never tries to wiggle out of his responsibilities and always sets an excellent example for his fellow felines in the Community Room. Youthful Rori might be rambunctious sometimes now, but there is hope that she will learn some decorum (Ha ha! Never! She shouts with glee!) from the elder statesman. For now, she wiggles and wriggles gets wherever she can, especially into our hearts.
Big or small, long or short, heavy or light, there is a cat of every type at Tabby’s Place. One thing they all have in common is that the situations that landed them a space among the now hope-full were lacking hope at some point. Saving cats from hopeless situations is a weighty matter indeed. Once through threatening, frightful landscapes, the cats arriving through the intake doors will find warm embraces, comfort, food, and safety. As they adjust, the greatest hope is that their stays at Tabby’s Place will only be long enough to shake a tail feather as a goodbye when they head off to forever homes of their own. For those that stay longer or forever, they can shake off anything that may weigh them down. Big or small, for every cat there is enough wiggle room to be themselves and to lighten their load, even if they flatten a lap while doing it.