Micheline Lalonde

Olive and Omens

My cat Olive adopted me the day my Dad passed away. I say she adopted me because she was a wild stray and great huntress. She did not have to seek me out for survival, yet she still chose me for companionship. Before Olive found me, I had an intuitive feeling that we were going to find each other. I was discussing my family situation with a friend when I declared, “when I go home, I will find an animal that needs my help.” I had never randomly found an animal at my parents house before, so I wasn’t entirely sure why I was making this declaration now. I packed up my bags in my one bedroom apartment in Toronto with a heavy feeling in the gut. I had to return to my hometown because my Dad was placed in palliative care the week prior. There was a small window of time left for his life after a lengthy battle with COPD. My dog Ruca, a 9 year old lab/German shepherd mix was watching me anxiously pack. I knew my anxiety was rubbing off on her, as she patiently watched me from her bed, curled up in a tight ball and gazing at me with an emphatic stare. Both my Dad and I were huge dog lovers and he taught me everything I knew about dog training, but he vehemently disliked cats. It wasn’t until living with roommates with cats, that I grew fond of felines. Even Ruca became very fond of her kitten friends and shattered the myth of dogs and cats' natural feud.