Connected By Cats
In the summer of 2003, when I was nine, my mom would go to the park by our house every morning to do tai-chi with the neighbors. Some of them would feed the feral cats: Mimi, the super sweet gray and white girl, and The Yellow Cat, who was more skittish.
I began to join my mom in the mornings and that was how I met Li Je, who was in her nineties but could swivel her hips like a ballerina and Angel, who became the unofficial translator between the two groups.
After feeding the cats the group would move over to the community garden. There they’d do some watering and weeding and picking. Then Angel’s mom would lead the group in a few exercises. As we got to know her, Angel would tell us stories from her childhood in China, and her family’s immigration to the United States. My mom and I became fascinated by this little world we had been invited to, hiding directly in front of us.
One morning I noticed that Mimi’s belly was swollen. She was pregnant! But I could tell from the look on Angel’s face that it wasn’t exactly good news. Apparently this had happened before, but Mimi would always disappear and they wouldn’t be able to find the kittens. Angel suspected that they would be eaten by raccoons or coyotes.
So I made a deal with Angel: I would provide all of the supplies she would need to raise the litter if I got to keep one of the kittens.
My mom and Angel
Now, I would no longer wait for my mom to get up in the mornings.
Instead, I’d run to the park and find Angel myself.
And one morning she gave me the exciting news that the kittens had been born the night before! There were five of them; all girls we later found out. I picked Pokey because I thought that her calico markings were the prettiest.
Just a few months after adopting Pokey, my mom became pregnant with my youngest sibling and only sister.
So it turns out this story of two communities, Connected By Cats, is inter-special, multicultural, and multigenerational!
Pokey, or Pocahontas Angel Mimi Tiny Curry, turned twenty years old on July 30, 2023. And she is as beautiful, spunky, and sweet as the day Angel first brought her home.
2/14/2024
Thank you for everything.
You will be sorely missed my sweet princess.
To read other stories about the amazing pets in my life, check out my first book, A Real San Francisco Story. With Pets