Camera Critters: Tara Grace

This is my second time joining in with Misty Dawn's Camera Critters. Last week you met Angel Joy, world's naughtiest kitty. Can't favor one kitty child over the other, so this week I introduce you to Tara Grace. Both these kitties were rescued but Angel was still very young and doesn't seem to have any real scars. Tara was outside for a long time and it's pretty clear that besides being half starved so that her body didn't mature (she still weighs only 5 pounds) and her vision is damaged, she was also mistreated. Although you could see in her body and her expressive face the intense longing she had and has for touch, it took almost a year before she could begin to really allow herself that pleasure and it is still difficult for her in some ways. I'll probably never be able to hold her like I do Angel. What astonishes me about Tara Grace is that despite her history she has remained profoundly gentle.

A year ago - right around this time - Tara Grace almost died. Her brush with death was one of those bad things that brings wonderful blessings. First off, she was so ill when I found her collapsed that she had no strength to be afraid and so I sat for almost 5 hours reiki-ing her and talking with her. She has been much less shy of touch ever since. In the morning, when I called the vet in hopes that they made house calls, they said that they didn't, but because my house was so close by, their kind assistant offered to walk up the hill and take Tara down with him. Dan's generosity was the start of a wonderful friendship and brought five wonderful new people into my rather lonely house-bound life. And of course, it saved Tara Grace's life. Two crises and a dental surgery later Tara has been given a new lease on life. I feel guilty still that I didn't realize how ill she was until it became a crisis. She had been sick since she first came into my life and the first vet who saw her didn't pick up on the crisis of her teeth. I thought her condition was her normal. I was also blessed at that time to be put in touch with a group called AWAN. AWAN, which stands for Animal Welfare Adoption Network, operates mostly in Ulster County, New York, but they were kind enough to help me pay the astronomical (for someone on limited disability income) expenses of Tara's surgery and three overnight stays at the hospital. I am forever grateful to them.

Tara is so sweet to look at. She moves like a little ballerina. She has learned of late to play more and it is like watching a wonderful delicate dance. Then she opens her mouth and the sound that comes out belongs to a cougar or a long shore man. It is loud, harsh and very cranky. I sometimes think she is channeling my mother, she is so critical... It's interesting and endearing to me that Tara converses. She will grumble at me and I'll either grumble back in an attempt to mimic her or speak person to her and she stops, looks straight in my eye and responds. We have some pretty long talks from time to time.

I know this is getting rather long. Sorry. Tara gave me one other gift. She finished a task that Angel had been working on for a while. She smashed my old, not so good, zoomless digital camera into multiple pieces. Bless her. My new camera has opened up worlds to me that were closed before.

And now I'll stop talking and let Miss Tara speak for herself. Isn't she sweet?

Merrow!