Great-Grandmother's Cat

Day 125: As the family story goes, this old cat rode across the Plains on a buckboard, sitting on her silk pillow on my great-grandmother's lap. Kitty was regarded as ancient even in my youth so long ago, her ears chipped and her paint scratched, and I was only permitted to visit her, to admire without picking her up. On occasion, her pillow was sometimes placed in my hands so that I could read the verse:

Sweetheart
I love you when you're laughing,
I love you when you're sad,
I love you when you're teasing,
I love you when you're glad,
I love you when you're fooling,
I love you when you're true,
And the reason why I love you,
Is just because you're you.

Was Kitty a courting gift from Great-Grandmother's new husband? I will never know. My family is gone, each and every one. I have their stories and memories in my own grey head, though perhaps romanticized or embellished and in me, the spirit of their chronicle endures as truly as my love of this precious old and time-worn cat and her silk cushion. In your dotage, Kitty, I love you just because you're you.