Mitsy's Baby: A Cat's Final Dream

She loved babies, human babies, and would watch them for hours on end.

When new neighbors moved in next-door, they brought with them a six-month old baby boy. They would sit in their backyard with the baby and Mitsy would hide in the bushes by the wire fence, and watch.

So I knew that getting a baby at her ripe old age of seventeen would make her the happiest cat in the world.She curled up next to the newborn and slept the peace of cat heaven. She never got too close to him because she knew that wasn't right.

The first time he focused on her old, sagging face, he couldn't figure out what she was.

When he had hand coordination, he reached out and touched her soft ginger fur, and fell in love.

Mitsy stayed with him when he played and when he ate baby cereal in a carrier on the floor.

He belonged to her, and we all respected that.

She only lived ten months after we got our baby, but she must have died happy, even though she was old and sick, because having a baby was as precious to her as it was to me.