There are some decisions you make carefully, thoughtfully, after weighing all the possibilities.
And then there are decisions made by making eye contact with a kitten in a cardboard box outside Tractor Supply.
Scamp was the second kind.
It was Memorial Day weekend in 2019, and my mom, my brother and I had gone into Palatka, Florida, to pick up a few things for the house. As we walked into Tractor Supply, two little girls were sitting to the left of the entrance with a box of kittens.
I saw the box.
And I very deliberately did not look inside it.
I knew better.
We went in, got what we needed, and eventually came back out. There were two kittens left. One was a little darker. The other was a charcoal-gray mackerel tabby who looked up at me.
That was Scamp.
He came up to me first. We made eye contact. I picked him up and carried him over to show my mother and brother, who were waiting in my brother's truck.
My mother was shaking her head no.
I was shaking mine yes.
My brother's reaction amounted to, “Oh my God. Here's another animal.”
And that, more or less, was that.
So Much for “No”
The funny part is that we weren't finished shopping.
We still had to go to Home Depot.
It was late, and even though it was Memorial Day weekend, it was cool enough that my mother was wearing a jacket. The same woman who had just been vigorously shaking her head no was soon riding through Home Depot on one of the store scooters with this tiny kitten tucked safely underneath her jacket.
All the way through the store.
And she held him under that jacket all the way home.
So much for no.
The Kitten Became Earl Grey
That little kitten did not stay little.
Scamp grew into an eighteen-pound charcoal mackerel tabby with an enormous plume of a tail, gorgeous green eyes and huge snowshoe feet, complete with fur underneath them like the big northern forest cats. He has a little bend in his right ear now, the result of a hematoma after an ear infection a few years ago. I used to feel terrible when I looked at it because I remembered what caused it. Now it is also simply part of the face I love.
But none of those things is what makes Scamp extraordinary to me.
Scamp is not aloof. He is the absolute kindest and sweetest cat. He wants to be near me. He is gentle, affectionate and deeply loving.
He is, quite simply, love embodied in fur and snowshoes.
And that is the cat behind Earl Grey, the mascot of Cheshire's Tea Cottage.
Earl Grey Is Home
When I began creating the world of Cheshire's Tea Cottage, there really wasn't anyone else who could preside over it.
Earl Grey may be a character, but the heart underneath him is Scamp.
Fresa brings the mischief. The dragons bring the magic.
Earl Grey is home.
Because that is what Scamp feels like to me.
Warmth. Kindness. Welcome. Companionship. Love.
All because, on one Memorial Day weekend in Palatka, I finally looked into a box I had very sensibly tried not to look into.
I did not adopt that cat.
I made eye contact.
He came home with me.
That was the entire process.
And I wouldn't change a thing. 🐾💚
