If cats can change...

You may not have known but we also have a cat. She was given to us right after Curtiss died and she has endured a lot in her nine lives. We have moved. She has endured a near fatal attack from a dog. She lived in a barn the year we were in Papua. She has had to welcome stray cats who have attacked her and for the last 8 years...dogs. She has stayed in the basement since we moved here and has stayed as far away from the hub bub of upstairs. About 6 months ago everything changed, she started coming upstairs and sitting on the fringe.
Then she started sleeping on our table...high enough away from the dogs. Then she walked right in the living room and took over the couch which has always been Mocha's territory. Chino has a little bit of a crush on this cat but she keeps him at a distance, though I have seen him come pretty darn close. He thinks when she hisses she is just inviting him to play.
This cat is on the old side of life...what made her suddenly decide that life was worth the effort to face her fears and dive right into company? She makes me smile every day because we find in her in the oddest places all over the upstairs. It is as if she is making up for all the previous years of hiding. This can't be normal cat behavior to change so drastically but what a metaphor for me.

Love enough to be unafraid...to speak the truth and be unafraid, to grow old unafraid, to let these children go unafraid. Love casts out fear.
I don't think our cat loves anything...but she is now unafraid and is living much more free. If she can...I can.