Lulu
Ok, I suppose I secretly have a favorite. It would have been a tie with Badi. But Lulu turned out to be the one. Lulu, the name means pearl in Arabic; I took the time to look at some popular Arabic names. She more or less adopted me. One day I opened the door and in she walked. She had been in a spat with Lily and did not want to be near her. Did I mention that they usually all got separate piles of food? Yeah, five separate piles, like setting a table, each time they fed everyone had their own place and space. Badi and she will share. They actually nuzzle one another. Otherwise each keeps to his own space.
So, in she strolls. Her tail was straight up and shaking. Cat lovers will know what all of this means. I kind of get it. I fed her right at my stairs. Lulu ate and looked much more at ease that Lily was not a potential threat. Then Lulu took a stroll around my place. It’s not a neatly kept villa. My bad. She haunched back down to eat and had dust in her whiskers and on her toes. Yeah, my housekeeping skills need an upgrade. Then she got really brave and walked upstairs and downstairs and explored, all the while not panicking that she had no door out. No, I don’t leave the door open. We have mosquitoes. And I get bitten frequently. And I don’t want an obscure tropical disease. Yes, cats carry disease but Lulu looks clean enough and so far I am still healthy. After she explored, I felt distinctly as though I had been on tryouts.
The next morning as I came do to get my stuff ready, there was the sound of meowing I could not place. It turns out Lulu was outside the door waiting to hear me move about. She walked right in again and sat and ate. One evening she tried to persuade Badi to come in again. He wasn’t having any. So they both stayed away. Needless to say Lulu is friendly. She and Badi will rub all around me and hide under my legs for protection. Neither of these two nip or scratch. I can even jostle and lightly annoy them with hugs. They are easygoing. The big test is whether they are still hanging about while I am gone a couple weeks. I think so, they are getting fed from somewhere else, and they were getting along somehow before I started to feed them. Who knows? You know? Even as I write up this post I’m still having trouble telling Lulu from Lily. Imagine forgetting your kids’ names or their birthdays. Geee!
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