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The Cat Who Loved Me

Chigger came into my life one stormy morning as I was leaving work. I rushed from the building, as did forty other employees, wishing to be first out of the parking lot. It was a mad dash we made for our vehicles in the downpour. Then suddenly those in front of me stopped. I looked to see what had caught their attention after they moved on, and my heart was touched.

There she stood, barely visible in the headlights of cars and barely missed by the tires headed for the exit from the parking lot. She was so tiny. Where did she come from? How had she survived the traffic thus far?

I didn't know any of the answers, only that I could not leave her there to face a certain death. I scooped up the soggy ball of fur and went back into the building. My son, who was the supervisor on the shift following mine, looked up in surprise to see me returning to the office.

Then his eyes fell on the kitten and he like me, was touched. "She's no bigger than a chigger," he laughed, and the name stuck. We dried her off and found a box to put her in. I had no choice but to take her home with me as company policy had already been breached by bringing her into the building.

I put the closed box on the back seat and started home in the downpour. Only a few minutes later as I waited at a red light, I felt her cold little paws on the back of my neck. She climbed out of the box and up the back of the seat. She sat on my shoulder the rest of the way home.

Once in her new home, she took over and made herself comfortable. I had no cat food, so I fed her some tuna and bread mixed together. That did it as far as she was concerned; she loved me from that day forth.

However, she loved no one else. Actually, she didn't even like anyone else. She would tolerate my Mother and one of my daughters when they came to visit, but had to be put on her leash when anyone else came. She never outgrew this behavior and so no one loved her but me.

When I would return home from work, she was always hanging on the curtains watching for me. As I entered the house, she would run up my pants leg seeking to be held. I lived alone and this obvious show of being missed was heart warming to me.

I purchased all the cat accouterments needed and we settled into a routine. She liked the same shows on TV that I liked I guess because she wanted to be where she could see the screen. Sometimes she fell asleep but mostly she watched until I turned off the lights and settled in for the night with her snuggled under

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