Article submitted By: Aletha Irby
Everyone tells me my face lights up when I talk about Bailey. He’s the 18-month-old tomcat I adopted from Pawsitive Karma. I’d never had a pet but when I saw Bailey’s photo online, I knew he was the one. I’d been wanting a large orange tomcat for 35 years, but had always relegated that desire to the realm of fantasy because I lived in a strictly “no pets allowed” apartment complex. Finally, the management changed, and there, online, was Bailey.
Tammie Brandon, his foster mom with Pawsitive Karma, described to me how she found him begging for food for himself and his sister one cold November day on the streets of Round Rock. When he saw her, he immediately ran into her arms.
Bailey is the joy of my life. In the mornings, he welcomes me awake with a variety of vocalizations from his considerable repertoire—lilting meow-urrs, chirrups, and harmonica-worthy riffs and purrthrummings. He makes me feel like I am the best and the brightest person in the world with every brand-new dawn as he kneads my arm and nuzzles my face. His excitement about life is infectious.
And when I return home after work, he celebrates by cavorting around my ankles and standing on his hind legs to butt my hands with his head.
Evening playtimes are especially fun. Bailey is large, athletic, fantastically smart, and so very very orange—such a vibrant sight. If he were human, he’d be a 7’2” red-haired basketball player. This guy has a longer hang time than Michael Jordan.
Well, maybe a combination of Michael Jordan and Mikhail Baryshnikov. With some American Ninja Warrior or Spartan Racer thrown in. Tammie and her husband are award-winners on the Spartan Race Circuit. Though she claims that Bailey did not train with the team, I have my doubts. How otherwise could he have developed all his moves?
His leaps, pirouettes and the sheer verticality of his daredevil jumps are amazing as he catches the toys (feathers, jangling balls, catnip mice) I dangle for him. Zero gravity’s got nothing on him. Bailey mid-air is a bounding, boundless spectacle.
I owe Tammie and the generous, skilled, and loving foster parents at Pawsitive Karma for all this joy. They specialize in rescuing animals who are really in trouble, caring for them, and finding them forever homes. A big thank you from Bailey and me! Bailey is the beautiful and brilliant spirit I’ve been looking for. I would not have found him without the folks at Pawsitive Karma and their incredible, life-changing work.
October 1, 2017
Aletha Irby
Hyde Park
Austin, Texas
