Mollie the cat

When we had Rosie, ‘the best black labrador anyone could have’, Mollie used to come into the garden walking along the top of the drystone wall hunting for mice. She usually kept to the wall so as to avoid being chased off by Rosie. What we did not realise then was that she was hunting for food because she was being bullied by her sister. Her home then was with another family who were out all day. When Rosie died Mollie came into the garden more and we realised that she was undernourished so we put her food out occasionally. She was so pretty; tabby with a white chest and paws; that I tried to befriend her. At first she seemed terrified of any approach but very slowly she would allow me to stand nearer and nearer to her food saucer. Eventually she allowed me to stroke her and we started to become friends. I realised that she was adopting us rather than the converse so I went to see her ‘owners’ to tell them what was happening, Fortunately they were very understanding, they knew we had lost Rosie and they felt they would be better off with one cat rather than two who were not friends. Mollie took to her new home overnight and soon her bones started to mature and she was much healthier, the only thing that terrified her was the sight of her own sister in our garden, fortunately this does not seem to happen very often now. Mollie has qualities of non-verbal communication beyond most cats, or other pets of any sort, she has a very high level of social intelligence with the ability to make you turn from states of anxiety and pointless obsessions to lying on the sofa next to Mollie with a benign smile and a sense of pleasant calm and mutual affection. She possesses the quality of watchful meditation which is infectious. There is no need for self-help books or DVD’s, just sit with Mollie for a while and absorb a sense of magic!