This is Gogiano. A stray cat who found refuge in our home some two years back. A free roamer and a very territorial feline who used to throw random attacks at our docile house cats. But a bit of love, a pinch of attention, and a lot of food made him mellow to reveal his soft and cuddly side.
Gogiano likes to be carried. He could be carried the way one would carry a small child. Then he leans on the chest, put his huge head on the shoulder, and put his sturdy hands around the neck just like a child would do. Then he falls asleep on the shoulder. He is large, heavy, and warm. His embrace is tight, reassuring, sure. His purr is soothing and loving in the ear. Its vibration is therapeutic for sore muscles. His smell…well he smells of dust and saliva.
This dirty, stinky, and disheveled cat can bring so much comfort at the end of an exhausting day. Once carried, he doesn’t like to be put down. He has to be ripped off from my clothes like velcro, his claws curling inwards in protest. I wish I could carry him all day. But I have to place him somewhere for the night and turn back because I have things to do. He doesn’t like that. But I must pay attention to “important” things. And then again, at the end of every exhausting day, as I peel him off from my shoulder, deep inside, a hushed voice ask me whether there is anything more important than this sincere and pure form of love. I very well know the answer and yet I go inside the house and close the door.