What are the chances that when I am finding my hands full just trying to fan myself silly during the latest hot flash, am way less productive and more tired, or am trying to cope with the latest thing I forgot — like how I left my mobile phone at work Friday and am without it all weekend…

You see I sprang for an almost smart phone, the Rumor Touch, because Virgin Mobile offers a cheap month-to-month unlimited data, text and good enough phone minutes. It kind of painfully surfs the web, takes photos and video – this is a big step up from my previous ten dollar phone.

It’s another reason to laugh because now that I own a phone that doesn’t cost 20+ cents per minute,  I am more likely to be without my mobile phone than with it because I am just as likely to leave it at home when I go to work rather than forget it at work…

What are the chances that when I joke about women who have gone through the change not having children because they would misplace them…

What are the chances that this is when I would suddenly find myself Mama to a cat?? I had cats in my house growing up but I was a kid then — which needless to say is a different story than being the one responsible for the cat’s feeding, care and litter box. I am certainly an animal lover and as a child was quite partial to cats over dogs (I know, I know – most people I know are partial to dogs and dislike cats).

However, the last 30 years of my adult life have featured various living arrangements and lifestyles that might be considered downright neglectful to a pet, even an independent minded cat. I live alone currently, am gone long hours, go away on weekends at least once a month and love to travel. Add those ingredients together and it is easy to see why I never had a pet once I moved out of my parent’s house.

Despite these circumstances, when I began to realize there was a stray cat living around my house 24/7, I gave him some kefir and the next thing I knew I was bringing him to the Vet to see if he had a microchip and found out that he used to live indoors at some stage of his life because he is neutered and declawed. I had no luck in reuniting him with his previous owner and decided that perhaps an owner who isn’t home much is a step up from living on the street without claws.

I must say when I added a deck off the back of my house this summer to bring the great outdoors of my backyard more into my radar I never imagined part of the great outdoors would be a cat taking up residence on the deck and taking up residence in my life.

Now a cat who is either an abandoned or lost pet comes with “issues”.  So maybe I’m more like a foster parent than a mama. He is starved for affection and gets his nose out of whack on the days I work late. He is happiest when I stay home nearby him while he mostly sleeps. He has litterbox issues, food issues and water issues but as I try to read up on cats I find that he is quite normal in most regards. The books I am reading include Outwitting Cats by Wendy Christensen and Think Like a Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennett.

He is a Siamese, about 5 or 6 years old according to the Vet and they thought I should name him Buddha, because they said he has a Buddha belly. I found their suggestion amusing considering my own love of Eastern Spirituality and Buddhist temples that I have visited in Asia. So what did I name him? Mr. Bowtie. Siam is the ancient name for modern-day Thailand and I contemplated various names related to Thailand. It’s unconventional but I liked the wordplay involved in how the tie in bowtie sounds the same as Thai. It’s Tae-bo backwards too. And he has a ring of skin around his neck where the fur is completely gone underneath the bell collar he had on when I rescued him. The Vet said it wasn’t really a pet collar but more like a Christmas ornament.

I have been trying for 2 weeks to write about activities related to the Sri Chinmoy Centre such as my impressions and photos of this year’s 3100 mile race that ended last Tuesday. Instead I’m researching kitty litter, trying to get Bowtie to adjust to life in my house and just generally bonding with him.

Since my life at work this summer has been super busy helping to coordinate and run a Summer Reading program for children and full of disruption from the AC of the building calling it quits (and even after a mucho expensive repair it looks like it might be quits for good), I think I am waving the white flag of surrender. Surrender to life without air conditioning during the hottest summer on record and surrender to writing about a little four-legged furry creature (instead of the 3100 race) whose blue eyes and purr have melted my heart.

Here is a picture of the new member of my household. And who knows, maybe my doting on him will take my mind off all my other midlife woes. Guess the maternal instinct doesn’t have a shelf life after all.