Getting to know you

I have a new friend.  I adopted her a few weeks' ago.  Her face jumped out when I looked, for the first time, at the charity's 'rehoming' pages over the Bank Holiday weekend.

It was, I think, love at first sight.  For me, at least.

I had travelled the 30 mile journey with more than a little ambivalence.  Was now the right time for me to be assuming another commitment?  

Sometimes, things happen.  Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.  

Thing is, relationships don't just turn up when you're looking for them.  Sometimes, cats come into your life when you least expect them to. She is not what I had in mind, but then some of the most rewarding connections I've made to date have been with individuals I couldn't have foreseen having much in common with.  

I vacillated over the decision, weighing it up and canvassing opinion from trusted friends (most of whom were, as they would freely confess, unduly biased).  

A week later, I travelled down to the shelter (for the third time), pet carrier at hand.  She was coming home with me to her new 'forever home'.  

I needn't have worried.  Miss Z is more than a little independent.  But this certainly is a significant relationship and, as such, deserving of mention.    

We have been getting to know one another...

We felt our way through the first few days.  We were, I think, both a little tentative as she arrived.  We negotiated the space.  She quickly found her feet, and I soon found mine.

First impressions are important in any relationship, and this was no exception.  I have been on my best behaviour.  We have been learning each other's habits and preferences.  

I so wanted to get it right...  I wanted her to feel 'at home'.  I made a few feline friendly adjustments around the environment, which seem to have gone down well.  Relationships involve compromise, after all.  

Communication remains something of a challenge.  She did not take long to find her voice.  I am still deciphering the particular dialect, whilst seeking improve my pronunciation.  We are developing something of a language and continue to learn from one another's non verbal cues.  I am interpreting the headbutt as friendly.   

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