An Easter Anecdote

Last summer after Alan and I got engaged at Kairos, we had to deliver a small fleet of bicycles back to a summer camp near my parent’s house. When I got there, there was a litter box and a bowl of cat food in the entry, but no sign of a cat. Mom told me that they had just brought home a cat, and her name was Coco, and that she was a little shy.

We didn’t see her at all. The entire two days we were there. I actually hunted for the cat, and couldn’t find her. I know all the good cat hiding spots, and there was never a cat in any of them. As we were driving home, I wondered aloud if I was being collectively pranked, if my Mom had some kind of weird new hobby, or if the cat had simply run away when they weren’t looking. Alan wasn’t very forthcoming and that made me think he was in on it, too.

The next time I was home was on my birthday two weeks later, for a wedding. The first day we were there, I saw no signs of a cat other than the food and litter box. Mom was a little unimpressed that I didn’t believe Coco existed. In the middle of the night, I heard a howling outside the spare bedroom door. It sounded like an angry ghost. After trying to ignore the awfulness for about five minutes, I open the door, and a pair of cat eyes reflected back at me, and then Coco took off like she’d just seen a ghost. Turns out I was wrong. My mom wasn’t losing it, and her frustration with my half-serious musings was completely valid.

I saw the creature the next morning. She sat at the doorway, staring at us, refusing to come any closer. She is a fully grown dark brown cat with tonnes of attitude. Some cats will pretend they like people. Coco would never sink to that level.

At Christmas, Coco would come into the room for upwards of fifteen minutes at a time before fleeing. She would sit next to you on the couch, provided that you were my Dad, who has magical cat powers, but you weren’t allowed to touch her. Coco doesn’t like large gatherings, either, so the fewer people in the room, the more social she’ll be. The last few times I’ve been home, she’s let me pet her, as long as I didn’t do so for very long.

Last Thursday night, when I went home for Easter, I got home and the place was empty. I let myself in, and sat down to read a book. Coco jumped up on my lap, plopped herself down, and stayed there for an hour or so till my Mom returned home.

I’m not sure what happened. I’m betting that it has something to do with my Dad’s magical cat powers, but Coco has turned into a fairly social, friendly cat. She sucked up to all the relatives on Sunday at Easter dinner, and didn’t even try to bite me this weekend. She even let me pick her up. She didn’t like it, but she tolerated it for almost a minute. How odd.

And that’s my Easter recap.