Lincoln Days Festival, Hodgenville, KY; October, 2007
When Madison was almost 5, Santa brought her her first cat. I chose to adopt a kitten for her Christmas surprise from the first no-kill animal shelter I had ever heard of, in Vine Grove, about 1 hour from where I lived with Mom in Buffalo. I went into the young cat room (they didn’t have any kittens), and a black cat immediately ran over from the back of the room to greet me. We locked eyes as he approached, and I swept him up in my arms. It was love at first sight. I looked around at the other cats, but I knew that nothing could match that initial spark. My new friend came with the name Henry, but I quickly rechristened him JoJo (as in, “Get back, Jojo,” from the Beatles song).
Obviously, Madison was thrilled with her gift from Santa. JoJo has come to be my best friend too. We have dogs and other cats, but JoJo and I have something special. Six years later, the animal shelter from which I adopted JoJo had a booth at the annual Lincoln Days Festival in Hodgenville. Andrew and I stopped at the booth to make a donation when we noticed a photo album of pets adopted out by the shelter. As we looked through the album, we told the lady attending the booth about adopting a much-loved cat from them a few years previously. The lady asked the cat’s name, and when I told her “Henry”, she said that she remembered him well and immediately turned toward the front of the album to a picture of him at the shelter. We had a great conversation telling her all about JoJo’s role in the family. She loved to hear about how patient he was with Madison when she was a little kid and carried him around constantly, putting him in strollers and high chairs, which he tolerated with grace and composure. JoJo is certainly a memorable feline, and it was great to reminisce with someone who remembered him from a different time and place.
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| JoJo (black) and his play brother Kesey (gray) |
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