This is what I looked like this morning at 3:08 a.m. when I was awoken by Oreo, the cat (also known as Yo-Yo, cra-cra, Orie). She was crying for literally 20 minutes. When I finally got out of bed (of course no one else got out of bed), I found her at the bottom of the steps looking up at me.
She’s not the friendliest of cats. She was a stray that I served as a nurse mid-wife to her when she popped out a litter of deceased kittens on my lanai. But, last night, she let me pick her up and she immediately started purring. I noticed the pads of her feet were really cold. I held her for about 10 minutes, rocking her back and forth on the steps. I’m sure if Mr. Bee has woken and saw me “rocking the kitty” he would have finally admitted his wife was cra-cra, too.
During that moment I thought about all the times I got up with Miss Bee. Caring for her when she was sick or spraying the room with “Witch Spray” and wishing I could get a good night’s sleep. She doesn’t need me as much lately. The house was quiet. It was just me and cra-cra bonding. Then, she was done.
I went back to bed which then disturbed all the other cats. As I drifted off to sleep, with one of them waving their tail across my face, I remembered Nanny’s quote I sometimes use on Miss Bee…
Hospitality is in my DNA. I founded Home with a Twist, a daughter’s twist on her mother’s traditions, in memory of my mother to celebrate her life and the gifts she shared with me. Mother loved to celebrate life’s occasions – big and small.
