My True Shadow

It's pet spotlight day on Day 5 of the 30-day blog challenge. Originally, I was going to post about my sweet puppy, Shadow, but as I lay here on the sunroom sofa, I have realized who my true shadow is...Clover. She is laying on my arm as I type this on my iPad, keeping close to me after I was away working for over 11 hours. 

Here she is watching over every word I write, so I better make this good!

I went to Good Mews to look at a cat named Nutmeg in February 2009. My dad had a stroke in the summer of 2008, and something told me it was finally time to stop talking and longing for a cat and to just go adopt one. Nutmeg was a beautiful calico who they had been trying to find a home for awhile. So, I made an appointment and met an adoption counselor to meet Nutmeg. Upon arrival I was greeted by a tabby who stretched her paws up on my skirt and demanded to be picked up. So I did. And as I held her, she purred and crawled all over me. I met Nutmeg who couldn't have cared less about me if she tried - my guess was the cat I was holding had already told her in kitty telepathy to buzz off I was taken. And I was. 

Clover was called Lena back then and was as the volunteer put it, "the ho' of the center." I was told she loved everyone and to not think I was special. But what this volunteer didn't know was that I had asked that the cat who was to be mine chose me, and well she had. I have a picture of Clover staring at me as I looked at other cats...she was not happy. Eventually the volunteer relented when others at the center commented on the fact that Lena/Clover had found her home. She even pawed the glass at me when I had to leave. I thought I would go nuts until I got her home, but a day later she was taking the car ride to freedom and I gain a true familiar. 

Clover is pure magic to me. She opened my heart to love and made me feel accepted and loved in a way I hadn't before. She would run to the door when I returned home and snuggle with me every night in bed. Sometimes she would sleep with her head on my shoulder, sometimes beside me while I held her paw. And when Shane, my husband, came into our lives, she loved him as much as I did. He was the daddy I promised her when I held her on the sofa crying because my daddy was sick and I was still very much alone. She is my miracle. 

We've been together for five years now and have survived a lot together. She still sometimes sleeps on my shoulder but usually makes her way to the pillow above my head where my sweetie holds her paw. She checks on her dog brothers, though she acts like they are pests when people are looking. She likes to prove people wrong with what they believe about cats. She adapts to change and loves people. She once slept in her cat tree in the middle of the room while we had 35+ people over for a party.

So here's to my true shadow, my animal companion, the cat my dad couldn't believe I adopted because I was allergic (I still am). One of the last conversations I had with my dad was about her escaping from the house for a few minutes. He loved to hear stories about her and she would sit in his lap when he and mom visited. In the end, I remember him telling me how glad he was that I adopted her, that she was a great companion.  And she is....my Clover girl, my shadow.