LOKi

LOKi came into my life in the summer of 2000. I was living on Capitol Hill in an old (1906) house. Our backyard was not finished, and we parked our cars back there. There was a huge laurel bush along the back, and it grew on a slope. I liked to sit out there and enjoy the sun. There were cats that came to visit me, and we would have little parties together.
During the beginning of that summer, a gray kitten with soft stripes and a light orange tabby kitten would come out of the laurel bushes and sit and play in the sun. They were very shy and skinny. I would sit and just watch them, trying not to scare them away and let them get used to me. If I stood up or made any move towards them, they would scatter. One vision I remember is them playing with leaves that were coming down. The leaves would float back and forth, and they would both dance and weave trying to catch them. "The Little Gray Kitty" and "The Little Orange Kitty." I made up the story that they were brothers, although I never knew for sure if that was the case.
I put food out every time I saw them. I had to sit very still and very far away, and then they slowly started to come and eat some food. A lot of days I sat in the sun on a large chunk of concrete that was sitting there like a glacial erratic. It was very peaceful, and at some point we attained a balance of the positions of where we could be and not bother each other.
"Little Gray Kitty" was more shy than "Little Orange Kitty". Their stripe patterns were identical, and they had the same graceful, long-legged build. They both had huge ears and eyes that dominated their faces.
Food became more of a draw as the summer went on. I put the food closer to me, and sort of dared them to come get it. I remember times, when I became a bit greedy, that "Little Orange Kitty" dodged under my car and would not come out. I sometimes walked him all around the perimeter of the car when he was afraid to come out from under it. After a lot of time, ‘Little Orange Kitty" let me pet him. It took even more time before he would let me sort of hold him. This was when the food came in very handy. "Little Gray Kitty" never really came around to that stage. He would eat only when I was far away.
As summer turned into fall, I made plans to catch "Little Orange Kitty" and get him neutered, etc. and find him a good home. I never really made any similar plans for "Little Gray Kitty"- he never came close. If he had, I would have done the same. I made sure I always left him food.
I caught "Little Orange Kitty" in October. We put him in the mudroom and made an appointment at the vet for him. B left the light on all night the first night LOKi was with us, and LOKi tore up a whole roll of toilet paper (B said he didn’t want the cat to get scared in the dark; I explained that he was a feral cat and probably had been through a lot of dark nights.) He slept in the bathroom sink.
He made it through his appointment with flying colors, and he became a member of our household. We bonded immediately and completely. We had our "quality time" every evening, and became even better friends. He would sit on my head, purr and be all over me. At this time, I found a home for him. A friend from work said she would love to have him.
When A came over to pick him up, he was still incredibly, horribly afraid of strangers. He managed to crawl under the dishwasher (through a very small opening) with the strength and agility connected with blind fear. I made A a pot of tea, and we waited for the kitty to come out from under the dishwasher. It never happened. After an hour and a half, I finally told A that when he came out, I would deliver him to her house.
He came out- I began to bawl and hang on to him and realize that we had bonded too deeply, and that I could not give him up. B was kind enough to look at me and say "Merry Christmas."
That’s how LOKi came to be in our family.
His name- I couldn’t think of him as anything but "Little Orange Kitty" although I tried to give him a unique name. It finally occurred to me- "L"ittle "O"range "Ki"tty- LOKi. TA-DA!