Dumpster-Dancer

Her dashing European RockStar died. He crashed his motorcycle leaving the vibrant young widow with a global bucket list to finish alone. The best days of her widowed life had been in the languid, sultry tropics they had hoped to visit together. Her beloved cat, Lucky, seemed made for that jungle place too, hunting with abandon on a safe, warm island of much prey, few predators, and even fewer Animal Control Officers. But America beconed. It was the last destination on the list.

She promised Lucky, and herself too, that after America they would return to paradise. Only a truly special soul would take seriously a promise to a pet. Only a truly special soul would take seriously a commitment to complete her late husband's bucket list. And as often happens, truly special souls often attract a special love again.

Love called her to stay longer in America than she had planned, but she never forgot her promise to return Lucky to the jungle. Time passed. Lucky, at first, didn't know how to hunt American rodents. Lucky didn't know how to hunt in a land without massive plants to hide in . . . but then she taught herself. Species by species, Lucky learned the trick to catching each. Some required a quick dash others a rock-still stakeout of the burrow. Soon Lucky was reaping a fine harvest each day. Resting between hunts in the perpetual sun she came to love sand baths in a land with out rain.

Time's nasty trick is to age pets faster than those of us who love them. Lucky grew old hunting in America while her mistress was, if anything, younger and more beautiful than when she came. A return to the jungle would likely end her American romance (money, distance, and immigration issues).

For the most special sort of soul, a promise, even to a cat, is not just a promise, but a core element of her very self-identity.

How can she keep her beloved cat in America having promised otherwise?

On the other hand, she had changed her own mind and decided to tarry in America for love. Is it not possible that Lucky also would change her mind and choose to stay in a land of endless sunshine and unlimited rodents?

If Lucky changes her own mind, would it be right for her mistress to keep the promise to return her to the jungle?