These are pictures of Ms. Halle B Berry, the black cat, who shares my home.......she is an example of serendipity, or as the late Rev. Susanne Meyer might have said, a moment of Grace.

Either describes, in my understanding, things that happen which are sometimes coincidental (also now referred to as moments of synchronicity), or things that happen that seem to have more meaning than can be seen at first glance.

Ms. Halle B was a kitten standing in the street a block from a busy four lane street. A friend who doesn't 'do' cats picked her up out of the street. I took her to hold her and said, she must belong to someone she has a collar. My friend replied, 'it's not a real collar'.....sure enough it was a child's bracelet that said "Jesus Saves".

I remembered at that point that I had been attending a drum circle at a church about a block from where the kitten was, and that one of the women there had said that a kitten had been dropped off on their doorstep. I wasn't sure if it was the same kitten, or if there was any connection, but I said to my friend, she belongs to someone, and put her back down. She promptly walked into the street again, it was dusk, she is black, and it wasn't good for her to be out, or in the street. So my friend picked her back up, and I took her knowing that she wasn't set up for kitten sitting....and I waited to see if anyone posted a sign about a lost kitten, checked with the vets etc, and no one seemed to be looking for her.

One of my vets lived near where we found her, and said that he'd seen her out running around also, and thought she was lost. I said but she had a collar, and he said "it wasn't a real collar"......the thing was certainly not a cat collar that would release if she had gotten it caught on something, so it was pretty dangerous with her out unsupervised with it on......but it was dangerous as young as she was with her out unsupervised at all. When I brought her into the house, it was clear that she was not as the ads say, "litter box trained".....but learned that skill quickly, and has never deviated from her training.

So now, 5 years later, she still resides here. She is the only cat I've had in the past 35 years that I did not get as an adult adopted from a shelter.....and she is certainly the strangest cat I've had maybe ever. She absolutely is very routine bound, and places a very high importance on certain things that she gets to eat. Her food of course, but also her snack of whatever greens go in my breakfast omelet (canned turnip, or collard, etc greens), and also her 'hairball medicine' which is one of her favorite things ever. She has a definite opinion about what time these things 'should' happen, and frankly daylight savings time and the change back from it just ruin her schedule.

She has many toys, but seems to prefer green things. She has a green toy with the ball in the track, which she loves to bat while lying on her back and looking at it sideways.....she is a talker, and will carry on a reciprocal conversation.....loves to watch the birds, and anything that moves on the patio She absolutely has hated and tried to kill any other cat that has stayed with us for any period of time.

She used to be quite a pest in the morning and would decide it was time for me to get up and would bite my feet. Now she simply curls up beside me and purrs me awake......I've never had another cat do anything like this, and it is quite endearing.....once up though she meows incessantly until there is food in her dish. She is only fed twice a day, because she has had a weight problem (at one point weighed 21.5 pounds, now is down to a svelte 12.5).....I knew the 21.5 was totally unhealthy, just couldn't get the weight off until we did a version of the South Beach Diet.....about a tablespoon full of canned cat food per meal, we started out with 3 x a day, and now she gets that once a day, and about 1/3 C dry food once a day.....

She absolutely loves cardboard boxes, even when she doesn't quite 'fit', she also loves music and will walk on the keyboard to play it, if it's turned on, and will sit beside me, or in my lap when I sing......she also will cuddle when I'm ill or sad, and in many ways reminds me almost more of a dog than of a cat......

In this month of Thanksgiving, there are many things for which I'm grateful, but of these three faith, hope and love abide, and the greatest of these is love.......and Ms. Halle B gives that without question, and without judgment.....