At Last: The Lady in Red

At Last: The Lady in Red

Now that I’m finally able to take digital pictures and post them to my blog, I’d like to introduce my readers to a very special cat. I don’t know her name or even if she has one, so I call her the Lady in Red.

For close to a decade if not more, the Lady in Red has been living at a local nursing home adjacent to one of the most beautiful parks in the city. She is well cared for and I believe she’s spayed because I have never seen her with kittens.

Whenever I walk through the park, I usually see the Lady in Red sitting on a bench next to an elderly person or near an adult with a child. She doesn’t demand attention or beg for food. She just sits quietly, offering her good energy to the world.

Sometimes she enjoys playing Hide and Seek.

The Lady in Red and I have known each other for years. I look for her whenever I walk through the park, and it’s always a treat for both of us when she’s around.

Would you like some skritches, Lady in Red?

Ah, I thought you might.

Sometimes the Lady accepts a drink of water from my hand. Like I said, she is well cared for, but in Israel’s dry climate it is always good to offer water. The Lady purrs as she takes a drink.

Once the Lady has drunk her fill, it’s time to wash.

Satisfied that she is spotlessly clean, the Lady surveys her kingdom, looking much like her cousin, the lioness.

The most striking incident in my friendship with the Lady in Red occurred about a year and a half ago, a few days after one of my closest friends died suddenly of a heart attack. Although a light, misting rain was falling, I decided to go to the park to be with my thoughts in nature. As I stood in the park I suddenly heard a loud meow at my feet, and I looked down to find the Lady in Red looking up at me in unmistakable command as if to say Sit down, please. I found a concrete bench that was miraculously not soaking wet, and the Lady in Red did something she had never done in all the years I have known her: she jumped onto my lap and stayed there as the rain fell. The rain didn’t faze her at all, and she made it clear that she would stay with me as long as I wanted her to. I hunched over her to protect her from the rain as long as possible, and when I felt the tips of her fur starting to get wet I said goodbye and left.

Like I said, the Lady in Red is a very special cat.

And being a cat is hard work. Time for a nap.

P. S. Check out the Carnival of the Cats, this week at CathColl.net.

P. P. S. Thank you, Imshin.