We had a long friendship with our last Maine Coon, Koyaani though we adopted her as an adult. Her name meant "life out of balance" in Hopi, and indeed she had been homed and rehomed many times. She was, in the words of her foster, the reincarnation of film star Mae West. She came to us with some serious health issues, and we nursed her back to health over time, got her off of some of her meds with modifications to the home environment (air filtration system, safe spaces to chill and de-stress, and were utterly shattered emotionally when she passed of chronic cardiopulmonary disease during the apex of COVID lockdown. Our local Maine coon rescue also shut down as Elaine Nojima finally retired and Maine coon adoptions in Oakland were taken over by Cat Town.

It had been over a year, and we weren't sure we were ready emotionally. As with all things, our home was ready to accept, but our hearts were still mending. We had another young rescue, Carrot, that we had rescued from a dumpster in Watkins Glen NY, and she was used to having a companion with her to play.

More or less by coincidence while on Facebook, I saw a post from a rescue org that I had joined of this cute little floof with the longest tail I had ever seen. I have always had a soft spot for black cats, especially knowing that some folks won't adopt them for superstition. In a whirlwind of events, we loaded up the cat and adopted "Tempy" which was short for temporary. She had been named after various witchy names, and we settled on a suitable name of Kiki, the benevolent witch from Hayao Miyaz6ake's Kiki's delivery service.

She can, when she feels like it, shake my hand, stand up, and she frequently visits my lap when I am seeing patients from home. Sometimes I think they keep coming back for her and not for me! She and her housemate Carrot enjoy watching birds and squirrels out of our window together, and they play hide and seek, taking turns to hide and find one another. When we bought our first house, we basically selected one built like an enormous cat castle, so it has been a heartwarming adventure.

Kiki did grow into her tail, though it is still extra fluffy. She truly is a magical being.