Today as my good friend Darla and I were playing, I marveled once again at the beauty and intricacy of her exceptionally soft fur. On the surface, she is easily mistaken for just an average black cat. Yet like her personality, a closer look reveals something very much different and unexpected. Darla is in reality a Tabby Cat!
When she and I curl up together for our afternoon nap, often as I drift into sleep I am transported in my mind to the rain-forests of Brazil, Mexico, and adjacent countries.
There Cat-Dad says roams a distant cousin of ours - the mighty Black Panther, largest cat in the Western Hemisphere. And just like Darla, a closer look into that black fur reveals patterns; the characteristic rosette spots of the South American Jaguar. The Panther is a mutation accounting for approximately 6% of the Jaguar population and results in a pigmentation within the skin termed melanism. I'm uncertain what the term might be in my Tabby Cat friend.Regardless, these observations remind me that what we see in another upon casual encounter is not always the truth. Every individual, whether Tabby Cat, Black Panther, or Human, has many complex layers which belie characteristics that are other-seeming. And not all are always on the outside.
When Darla and her sister Charlotte first came to our home, now almost two years ago, both kittens were absolutely feral. It required four months of patient interactions before they would accept even me as a friend, and an additional five months of conditioning before responding well to human contact. Such is the consequence of growing up young on the streets.
On the outside, Darla is slower than her sister to favorably respond to strangers, but I see within her the loving friend who now anxiously seeks Cat-Dad's touch. Always she is the wild animal who roams our house blending into the night with all the skills of our distant black cousins. Ever a contradiction in terms, this rare black Tabby on the outside with the heart of a Panther on the inside, is just waiting to find that special human who will understand and embrace this dichotomy of her turbulent past.With love for all,
Noel
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He's quite extraordinary at being ordinary. He has this dichotomy about him that's fascinating to watch.
- Author Unknown
