We got Tarot from Seattle Humane as a 6 month old ex-feral. She was very shy around people, but she loved our other cat instantly. She never learned to like being picked up, but she did learn to love pets from my partner and I. For the first couple years the only way to pet her was sitting on the couch and petting her with an outstretched foot. She knew exactly where to stand so she couldn't be reached if she didn't want to be. By the age of seven, she would come and sit on my chest every night for a half hour and demand to be pet by ramming her head into my hands as hard as she could.

She did everything on her own terms but she was the sweetest cat ever, she never struck or bit, not even when she was scared or had to be wrangled. She had a way of being always present out of the corner of your eye. She would hang out on the couch's arm, or on the seat of the furthest chair at the dinner table, just hidden by the tabletop. She liked to skitter from room to room like a little phantom. Like many cats, she really liked sitting in a window to creep on the birds on our balcony. I liked to feed the birds so she had more birds to watch.

The only trick she learned was to high five. She learned it by watching our other cat Cryptid as I asked him for a high five. I don't think she ever really understood it though. He would high five me with a soft, closed paw. She would high five by quickly batting my hand, claws extended, a reluctant look on her face like she didn't understand why I was asking for her to hit me.

She was a one of a kind tortie-calico creature. She would grow two white whiskers above her eyes that looked like little alien antenna sometimes. We will treasure the time we got to spend with her forever.