cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51875470

Story: This cat hung out with us while our daughter was in Future soldier training (FST). Even though there was a caretaker watching over the feral colony, this one chose to be friendly and have a meal near the car with us weekly.

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I saw you stop. You thought I’d hide, like shadows always do, but something warm and gentle stayed the moment I saw you.

You didn’t call, you didn’t chase, you didn’t cross my line, you placed a feast upon a cloth as if this world were kind.

A napkin laid on roughened street, a table set for me, no throne was ever dressed so well as that small courtesy.

I kept my face the way I must— composed and still and wise— but gratitude was spilling out behind my careful eyes.

For I am just a passing thing the daylight seldom keeps, a life that moves through parking lots and learns the night in leaps.

Yet you, today, with quiet hands and nothing asked in claim, made one small curb feel less like chance and more like somewhere named.

So if you felt me watching you before you walked away, it wasn’t fear that held me still— it was the need to stay.

To memorize that simple act, that kindness left so neat: a human heart that paused long enough to set a cat a feast.