honey and the wobble

the first time i saw honey, she wobbled. she was at one of the feeding pods we keep behind the building, and she was eating, and she was wobbling. i thought it was something fixable — a few weeks of supplements, maybe a stronger formula. these things happen with street cats.

it wasn't fixable. she has a muscle-wasting condition that is not going to get better. she has no teeth, which is unrelated, and which she does not seem to notice. her back legs go on her sometimes. on the days they do, she sleeps more, and she watches the sun move across the floor without going to find it.

it has been nearly seven years. i do not really remember the flat without her. she follows me from room to room because she has decided this is her job, and she purrs the moment you sit down anywhere near her, before you have even said anything. some things are not, in the end, fixable. and they are still wonderful.