📝🐱🖐️The Circle Grows Again: Welcome, Mila

There are moments when even a Queen must acknowledge that her kingdom has become a little quieter.

After the sad loss of dear Zoeff, my Circle of Friendship felt different. A place remained where a friend had been, and such places are not simply filled by putting another name on the list. That is not how friendship works. Nor, for that matter, is it how cats work. We have standards.

But life has a rather gentle habit of continuing.

And so I am very pleased to announce that my Circle of Friendship is growing once again.

Her name is Mila.

Mila is a beautiful one-year-old tabby lady who, like me, comes from an animal shelter. She has recently been adopted by two lovely humans and has taken up an important position in a household in Den Bosch.

At first glance, one might say that Mila has found a home.

I prefer the more accurate version.

A household in Den Bosch has been assigned a cat.

This is a considerable responsibility for everyone concerned.

Mila is still young, of course, but I see no reason why this should prevent her from taking charge immediately. Human management is best started early. If allowed to develop unsupervised, humans acquire habits. They begin closing doors without consultation, occupying chairs that are clearly required elsewhere and developing peculiar ideas about when breakfast should be served.

Before you know it, they think they live there.

Fortunately, Mila appears entirely capable of addressing the situation.

Her first months will undoubtedly involve a great deal of observation. She must establish which human responds fastest to staring, which one can be persuaded to surrender the warmest seat and whether either of them understands that a closed door is not an architectural feature but a personal insult requiring immediate review.

There will also be training.

Quite a lot of training, I imagine.

Her humans sound very sweet, which is encouraging, although sweetness and competence are not the same thing. I adore my own humans dearly, but this has never prevented me from recognising their need for continuing education.

Love is unconditional.

Management is not.

So, dear Mila, welcome to my Circle of Friendship.

You are not here to replace Zoeff. Nobody could. You are here because circles can hold memories and still make room for somebody new. I think that is rather a lovely thing.

You now have your own humans, your own household and, most importantly, your first senior management position.

I wish you every success in Den Bosch.

Be patient with your humans. Reward good behaviour. Correct small errors before they become policy. And remember that when they believe they have made a household decision entirely by themselves, it is sometimes kinder simply to let them continue believing it.

They do need their little victories.

Welcome to the Circle, Mila.

May your home be warm, your sleeping places plentiful and your humans highly trainable.

You have my full confidence.

And my deepest sympathy.

Yours, Mrs. Cotton 🐱🐾