There's Something About Mary...

Two years ago, I fell in love with a house and, through a strange twist of events, found out who the owner was.  I took a leap of faith, emailed her and asked if she'd ever thought of selling.  She just about fell off her chair because she had just been considering it, but didn't feel ready to do all those little upgrades one needs to do before listing.  We quickly connected on a lot of different issues, but mainly it was our love of animals that brought us together.

Over time, our relationship sort of fell to the wayside and, obviously, we never ended up buying the house.  But at the time, I felt that the stars had lined up because that was the house I was supposed to live in.  It was just one of those "Oprah gut instinct" moments that this woman and I were in each other's lives for a reason.  I don't connect with someone that quickly without there being a reason.

Fast forward to the last few weeks.  Mike and I have been discussing having another baby.  Actually, it's more like me following Mike around the house, whining that I want another one and him repeating, "No".  In all honesty, I know we are good with the two Littles and Joel, but I am forever going to miss being pregnant.  Had I known Bubbaloo was going to be my last, I wouldn't have bitched and complained so much during the pregnancy :)  And so, when Mike's definitive answer was "No", my response was, "Well...then I want a cat".  Mike pointed out that wouldn't be fair to Sophie and Ping (if you don't feel like clicking the link to their story, basically I made the decision, shortly before Miss K was born, to put down my two healthy cats because I couldn't bear to give them away and not know if they would be okay/loved/cared for etc...a very, very tough thing for an animal lover like me to do).  Mike had made a good point.

But because I have a habit of not listening to Mike and doing what I want anyways, last night I was skimming through cat ads on Kijiji.  There were tons of ads for free kittens, but my gut was telling me I wanted an older cat. Kittens always find homes...it's the older cats that nobody wants.  A header caught my eye and I clicked on the link.  It was a long ad, written with obvious love and passion, for someone to take an eight-year old cat named Mary.  The family was moving across country and, because of Mary's weight and overall health, the woman feared that Mary wouldn't survive the flight.  She described, in great detail, what a loving, mothering cat Mary is and how well she gets along with other animals.  Before I was even done reading the description, I knew two things: (1) Mary was coming to live with us and (2) the poster of the ad was the woman who's house I had fallen in love with.

I phoned the woman this morning and when she answered, I said I was phoning about the Kijiji ad.  I could hear the surprise in her voice.  In the two months it had been posted, no one had phoned about Mary.  When I then told her who I was, she just about fell off her chair for the second time in our relationship.  She explained how she had been fretting that morning over what to do with poor Mary...she was contemplating putting her down, rather than putting her through the stress of the flight.  But she and her children love Mary so much, they couldn't bear to do that to a furry family member.  But they are moving next Thursday and she felt she was coming to her wit's end and didn't know what direction to go.  She was also going to remove the Kijiji ad today.

Shortly after our talk, I went over to meet Mary.  She won't be coming to our house until Saturday, so she can spend a few more days with the family.  As I sat and cuddled with Mary, she nestled into my arms and purred the loudest purr I've ever heard.  The woman and I were talking about everything happening for a reason and working out how it's supposed to.  She told me that I was an angel and literally the answer to her prayers.  She knows that she won't have to worry about her cat and that Mary will be beyond loved in our home.

As I looked around her half-packed house, gently stroking Mary's soft fur, a small voice spoke inside me.  I smiled and quietly said to my friend, "You know what? It's funny how our worlds collided so we could meet.  But it wasn't because I was meant to have your house.  I was meant to have Mary".