It was a really tender moment and I'm so glad my partner got to see it.
So I figured this a good chance to tell the tale of Loki.
Several years ago, I'd gone through a fairly amicable breakup with a now ex girlfriend, we'll call her Ashley (no real names are being used.) I needed to embrace my polyamorous side, she needed someone who wanted to settle down and have kids, we realized that wasn't compatible. We were able to remain friends pretty well.
Which of course means we kept ending up in bed together but y'know, that happens. We ended up taking a break from each other to try and cycle that out of our systems.
When we reconnected, Ashley had asked her roommate, who we'll call Kelly, to basically chaperone our hangout so we wouldn't repeat the same mistake. And this is where Loki enters the picture.
Kelly's family lives in a rural town, and has made their family home into a cat sanctuary essentially. At any given times they'll have 15-25 cats, some of which live the indoors/outdoors with them and some of which are mostly feral but live in their garden. The family makes sure cats are safe, cared for, spayed/neutered and vaccinated, the works. So one day a new cat wanders up to the youngest daughter of the family, Becky. This new cat is very friendly, rubbing up against Becky's legs and purring, so Becky takes her home so they can get her to the vet and check for a chip and all that.
But this is a rural town. The family goes into the vet in batches because it's a long ass drive to the nearest vet so they'll take 4-5 cats at once. Since their next scheduled visit is in a few weeks, they just add the new cat to the roster they're bringing for that visit and post photos of her to local "lost cat" social media groups and check for any photos that look like her.
Now, this new cat is a skinny little thing, looks half starved, so they're delighted when in a couple days she starts gaining weight. Quickly - she must be devouring food at an alarming rate! But she's healthier, and happier, and seems very friendly with the people although doesn't get along super great with the other cats at first.
Then they see her walking up the stairs with a mouse in her mouth, and they're glad to see she's such a good mouser. Then the mouse says "meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew."
Yeah, that mouse was Loki. Momma had been pregnant.
Momma gives birth to four kittens, and the family is now looking for homes for them. They can and will take in more cats, its what they do, but with kittens they always try to find them loving homes that are willing to have indoor cats (because of how their place is set up, it's impossible to keep a single cat as an indoor cat, and they're cognizant of how dangerous roaming cats are to wildlife, so they rehome only to indoor only houses.)
Now, I was looking for a cat a the time, so I leap on the option. I'm shown a video of the three cats, all at about the age of "bean" weeks old. (eyes hadn't opened yet.) One of the cats was spoken for, but that was fine because it wasn't the itty bitty tabby that immediately grabbed my heart.
So, one week into his life, I'd decided Loki was my cat.
Three weeks later, Kelly, Ashley, and I go to visit the cats. So they are four weeks old, curious as hell, and absolutely adorable. And we are all cooing over them and I go to sit down on the floor.
Loki immediately, at four weeks old, trundles over to me, awkwardly clambers onto my knee, makes a couple biscuits, looks up at me and screams, then curls into a ball and falls asleep.
I chose Loki first, but he sure chose me right back.
I left a shirt I'd slept on for a couple weeks to help Loki get used to my smell. Loki refused to sleep without the shirt under him. They actually a couple times had to move his mother over to the shirt so he'd eat. As soon as he was old enough to be weaned and had his shots, I took him home.
6 months later I was diagnosed with cancer. I don't know how I would have made it through chemo without him.
And momma? Had no chip, no human came to claim her. Got her shots, got fixed so no more kittens. The moment all her babies were adopted - literally the very day the last one went to his forever home?
She vanished, never to be seen again. She seriously got pregnant, found a human to live with until her babies were born, and then went back to living her best life. I like to think that skrungly old woman is having a grand old time to this day, and hasn't had to deal with humans since.
I have two other cats - but those stories are for later.
