Mercury Shines As Jupiter Is Rising

Well, yesterday we got a second cat. A little fluffball of a kitten, actually.

Mercury is a very affectionate cat who wants attention all the time… and she’ll either get it from us, or from another cat.

Since we’re trying to run a business around here, we can’t always give Mercury the attention she wants… so that’s why we got Jupiter.

“We’ll look at some cats,” Barry said yesterday morning, “But we’re not getting the first one we see. He has to be a special cat.”

Yes, Barry had his heart set on a boy cat to go with the female Mercury. And yes, I wrote down some numbers of free kittens before we went to the pet store.

But at the pet store, this adorable little grey fluff was curled up in a ball, all alone in her cage. When I got the chance to pick her up, she sat in my hands as calm as can be and just purred.

She has little tufts on her ears like a wild cat — a trait I always loved in pet cats, and a trait I always tried to breed into kittens when I was doing that.

And she has a little marble pattern, just like some of the cats I used to breed.

And she’s fuzzy, like the incredible Dali (or, as I called him, “Dilly-Dali”) that came to live with me for several years before passing on of old age.

And then the clincher… “How old is she?” I asked. The pet store lady had to check her birth date records to be sure.

“She was born July 13,” she announced.

I looked at Barry.

“The day I came here,” I said. And it was decided — that kitten was coming home with us.

As can be expected, Mercury isn’t sure what to make of it. She’s hissing a bit and showing the little thing who is boss… but that’s as bad as it gets, and it’s a lot better than yesterday, so I know she’ll come around.

Then to cement the decision even further, Barry and I went to a local meditation group last night, run by a massage therapist named Donna Schmid.

We did a guided meditation, where I vividly saw everything she was leading us through; and then we did an open meditation where the aim was just to let our minds be aware of sounds and movement, but not to get lost in thought.

But the most profound part was when she read us a story, and talked about some travellers “who were really the gods Jupiter and Mercury in disguise.”

And what better confirmation that we got the right kitten and gave her the right name than that?

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!