She was worth the wait.

I certainly can't tell a little story about Parker without telling something about Vivianne.
 She's very special to me; I waited  22 years to get her!!

When Marty & I first started dating I learned that he was a dog person.  Nothing wrong with that, I had owned and loved dogs prior to meeting him but my secret heart really belonged to my cats.
I had recently moved back to the area and at that time did not have a cat.  Several months later, when we decided to move in together, the subject of pets came up.  "I will not have a cat in my house" is what I heard more than once.  I'm an easy going sort of gal, fairly sensible........cat or the man I had grown to love?  Some would choose cat but I chose man.  Man and I agree to get a puppy, our Kodi and I loved her more than I could have imagined possible.  We grew into a happy family and life was grand.
I had asked for one concession when we decided on Kodi, if things go well, in 6 months, we get a cat.   Well, that six months grew and grew some more, until it became 22 years.  A stroke of fate ended my wait.
A straggly ole stray cat showed up on our door step.  It was obvious he had once been a pet.  I was able to approach him and pick him up the first time we spotted him.  Marty has mellowed in our old age and did not try to chase him off with the gun or a firecracker.  I started putting food out, Raspy (the sound of his voice) seemed agreeable and gradually warmed up to both of us.  A couple of days later, we were schedule to leave on a short vacation, so we arranged to have someone put food out for him.  Marty said, "If he's still here when we get back, I guess we can keep him."   YEAH!!!
He was but this story does not have a happy ending.  We took Raspy to the vet for a physical and for the required shots.  The assistants told me later they suspected something was wrong when they first met Raspy and the blood work confirmed it.  Raspy had feline Aids among other things. Sad story shorter, the vet recommended we put him down, we did.  I was crushed!  It seemed impossible that I could become so attached in such a short amount of time, about 2 weeks. I truly mourned his loss and struggled with our decision.  Marty was amazing.  Even though he couldn't understand how I was feeling, he supported me and after about a week said, "When you're ready, let's adopt a cat."  YEAH, again!!
It took me a little time and many visits to our Humane Society's Catland but about 5 months later Vivianne joined our family.
What's amazing to me and I think unbelievable to Marty, he actually likes her!!  It's a miracle, Lord!  Thank you.