I don't believe in the "Cat" distribution system

 CDS is a common internet myth, that "the system" "sends" you a cat "When you need it most".  

God sends you the cat.  He has sent me a steady parade of traumatized, starved, cats.  Happy is pretty much the only normal weighted, untraumatized, cat I've ever had.  Everyone else showed up skinny, sick, worms, injuries, abused, etc.  

God knew we needed each other.  I found one cat in a trash can, another one the neighbor moved and left him to starve (Bubba).  Bubba actually brought another cat home, half feral senior white cat.  Once Frosty settled in he realized I was OK and he became a complete lap baby.  

But most of them just showed up, knowing, my guess, my reflex was to pet them, feed them, and give them 'Their best life now".  Cleo took 5 years to get in my lap but she can't get enough now.  

Which leads me to the one that got away.  Cleo and Spotty are brother and sister, he's orange and white, she's a calico with tabby markings in the black spots.  She's very pretty.  They came with their mother, a dilute calico I named Mama Cat.  

Mama Cat was still nursing them, even though they were a good 6 months old.  Normally mother cats wean the kittens around 2 months.  I got her fixed, I got Cleo fixed.  I ran out of money but I got Spotty a few months later.  

Mama cat settled in pretty well and liked to sleep in my bed with the kittens, Torbie, and Biscuit.  Then we had the pipe break, it was an emergency.  

Of course the damned thing broke right before Christmas.  We had to have an emergency cleanup which meant lots of chaos, losing 72 linear feet of dry wall, and a huge collection of very loud machines, drainage hoses everywhere, etc.  It was chaos.  Torbie and Baby Girl moved in Ron's room, the only quiet place in the house, Mama cat fled with the kittens.  Biscuit stayed true to me and continued to sleep on me even in my little camping cot.  

Mama Cat never came back.  She was done with my nonsense and moved in with a neighbor, who later moved and took her with them (I saw the cat carrier in hand the day they left).  Cleo and Spotty stayed for a couple years of hell with declining Ron until he died, then my return to work and 12 hour days 5 days a week.  

But they're OK.  They love me and they, like me, value the time we do have.  And that's nothing but a gift from God.