Mary, queen of cats

Mary is my little gift from The Universe.
After we came back from New Zealand, I missed having companion animals. But our situation was unstable and we did not know what was happening from one day to the next, so taking on animals was certainly not a good idea.  Once we found work in Johannesburg and started building a new life, we adopted a big blue-steel gray Great Dane after removing her from an unhealthy environment.
Gia and I bonded almost immediately and she never managed to bond with anyone else. I nursed her back to health and she turned into a beautiful, healthy, big dog that I loved dearly.

Sadly, we had to give her away when we learned we had to move away. If I could have kept Gia, I would have. I adored that dog. I suffered a broken heart when she left us.

Two evenings before we were due to move from Gauteng to the Cape (and the day after we gave Gia away), we heard a soft meow coming from the bushes outside the back door at the kitchen. My first thought was of a cat trapped in the thicket and needing help. This was strange as I had never seen or heard any cats in the vicinity. We lived on a busy street and thus it was not a cat-friendly environment.
I immediately went to investigate, and as I came closer to the bushes, out jumped a blue-steel fluffy cat, in perfect condition. The cat immediately walked straight past me and straight into the house. This may not seem like an extraordinary thing for a cat to do, but this particular cat turned out to be a shy and oversensitive cat that was very wary of humans.

We did not want to take on another animal so soon after Gia and especially seeing as we did not know where we were going to live or how long we would be stable for. The last thing we wanted was to get fond of another companion animal and have to say goodbye because we could not keep it.

I was willing to take a gamble. This cat was EXACTLY the same colour as Gia and she came out of nowhere. We discussed the matter and it was decided that if we could not find the “owners” of this cat before we moved, we would adopt her.

Needless to say, we never did find her previous “owners” and Mary became a very important part of our lives and our little nucleus family. Life has not been the same since.