Meenah was a project. She came to us because her owner was moving and was not allowed to have pets in her new home. Meenah is a gray and white, short-haired cat. Her head is a bit small for her body, and her stomach is disproportionately large. She’s not quite a fat cat, but she’s definitely out of shape. She had been traumatized as a kitten, and it caused her to be “paranoid with a reason” as an adult cat. If you tried to pick her up, she would squirm loose, jump to the floor, and go hide under something. Like I said, Meenah was a project.

It took a long time for Meenah to adjust to the two new human beings in her life. The thing that finally clinched the deal was the queen-sized bed with the soft comforter and the mounds of pillows. She also appreciated the body heat that we gave off. Meenah liked being warm and comfortable. It also helped that the resident cat, Prince Vlad, preferred to sleep and nap on the big, stuffed chair in the living room. This meant that Meenah was the instant empress of the queen-sized bed. She would position herself at our feet during the night and then move up to the pillow area during the day.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Meenah learned not to tense up so much when one of us would try to pet her. I found that tickling her under the chin or behind her ear was particularly pleasing to her. It seemed to have a wonderfully calming, hypnotic effect. But, it was not an instant success. Letting go of her hyper-vigilance and her well-honed skills at avoiding any possible threat was a very slow process no matter how well intentioned our motives might have been.

Meenah’s need for privacy and the fierceness with which she guarded her personal space initially had a very negative effect on the next addition to our household. Sparky, a little blue-gray, short-haired kitten, came to us on Christmas Eve several months after Meenah’s arrival.

Meenah found his high energy level intolerably adolescent, and she found herself forced to repel his constant attempts to snug-gle up to her at naptime. Sparky soon discovered how adept Meenah was at hissing and baring her teeth. He saw in Meenah the mom that he had recently lost and so badly missed. The problem was that Meenah wanted no part of this surrogate mother role. It was too much work. Peace and quiet were her watchwords, and she was serious about it.

But Sparky was not a kitten who easily gave up. No, let me put that another way. Sparky was relentless. If there was one thing that he had learned in his short lifetime, it was, “if you don’t succeed at first, try, try, try again”. The battle lines were drawn, and though she did not realize it at the time, Meenah never stood a chance. She just did not have the stamina to keep beating off Sparky’s never-ending assaults.

The game went something like this. Meenah would settle down in her favorite spot on the bed. Her eyes would flutter and close and she would begin to drift off into kitty dreamland. Eventually, Sparky would get tired of bouncing around the house and head for his favorite spot, right next to Meenah. He would claw his way up the side of the bed until he reached the high plateau on which Meenah lay sleeping. Without hesitation he would move toward her and snuggle up to her soft, warm body. Meenah’s eyes would snap open, her head instinctively turned toward the uninvited intruder. Her hind legs went into action immediately, pushing Sparky away from her. Sparky would then settle in for his nap, close to, but not touching his new mom.

Over a period of several weeks, Meenah became more and more accustomed to having Sparky near her while she luxuriated on her queen-sized, comforter throne. She even became accustomed to the sound of his rhythmic, “not a care in the world”, kitten breathing. This annoying little beast was beginning to have an unexpected calming effect on her. And, so, one day when Sparky snuggled up to her, she just hissed and bared her teeth, but her hind legs did not strike out to rid her of his touch. Then Sparky knew that the game was won. Soon the hissing, too, would stop, as well as the baring of the teeth. Meenah would think to herself how nice it was to have this adoring little kitten to snuggle up with.

Familiarity breeds boldness. At least that’s the way it was with Meenah. Once she finally accepted me as a part of her life, she set about finding ways to make me useful to her. The disturbing element was that her needs never seemed to occur while I was awake. For instance, Meenah developed a need to have me show her where her food dish was in the middle of the night. She would wake me up by licking my face or by turning on the touch-activated light on my nightstand. After all my efforts to gain her trust, there was just no way that I could avoid getting up and walking her into the kitchen. As soon as she settled down to eating, I was free to return to bed.

Although she was now used to all the members of our household, Meenah still over-reacted to any stranger’s presence by racing into our bedroom and burrowing under the comforter. She was still just a “scaredy cat”. That is until she distinguished herself in the Rabbit Wars. I had proudly planted, nurtured, and grown a new lawn from seed. Unfortunately, the little blades of “baby” grass that sprouted were an instant culinary delight for every rabbit in the county. I tried every remedy known to man to keep them out, but there they were every night, eating away the lawn that I had worked so hard to create.

At my wits end, I hit upon the idea of enlisting the aid of our two strong, fearless male cats, Prince Vlad and Sparky. As soon as I saw the ravenous rabbits munching away at my grass, I opened the front door and waited for the lads to spring into action. They were fearless. They were also not very interested in chasing rabbits. Just then, a gray and white blur brushed past my leg and shot out onto the lawn. The rabbits scattered in all direction.