07/29/2026
morning light's softness
like milk breaking espresso
a heavy blanket
This is a little different. Usually they are about a cat in the café, but this one is about my cat, Shy Guy.
I was telling his story at the F&F meet and greet on Sunday, and I think I've told it here before, but it deserves to be retold.
It was 2020, we were shut down, and all the cats had gone to foster or been adopted, except 2.
Dean and Dale came to us from Creston Cat Community, a TNR rescue I helped found, and they were named after the streets they were found in Creston.
They were semi feral and wanted nothing to do with people at first. They started out in an intensive fostership, in a cage, getting used to human touch with a ruler.
They ended up being the last two cats in the building. My husband drove down every day to take care of them, and little by little they started coming out of their shell. Sniffing him and getting familiar.
He told me he wanted to adopt them and I said we don't need any more cats. But it was taking so long, and he kept breaking me down, so I finally said fine, if they aren't adopted by "X" date, we'll take them.
The very next day someone applied. They came in for a meet and greet and we thought this was finally their time, and then they decided the boys were too shy. They wanted a friendlier cat.
So we brought them home, they became Shy Guy and Yoshi, and the rest is history.
Yoshi was the outgoing one right away. Shy Guy hid under the bed or somewhere out of sight for years. It took me several years just to be able to pet him.
Now he can't wait to get on my lap every night, my warm blanket. He even lets my toddlers pet him if he's already up there.
What made me think of all this is that there are so many shy cats out there that need homes, and with just a little extra love they end up being your favorite.
It's the kind of love you have to earn, which isn't quite the right way to say it, but he had to learn how to trust first, and that's what makes it so special to me now.
