**Personal Diary Entry**
Sarah was forty-seven when she decided to adopt. Not a child. Not a dog. Not even a cat.
What she adopted was silence.
She lived alone in a small flat, surrounded by houseplants, dog-eared books, and mismatched mugs shed collected without reason. Her life had been one long postponementlove, travel, children. There was always something more urgent. Until one day she stopped and realised there was nothing left that felt urgent.
Nothing at all.
On an ordinary Tuesday, she took the bins out and heard it.
A meow.
Soft.
Persistent.
Broken.
She glanced around. Nothing. Until she lifted the lid of a skip.
And there he was.
A tiny cat, filthy, with a mangled tail and crusted eyes. Barely breathing.
She didnt hesitate. Wrapping him in her scarf, she carried him upstairs.
She bathed him. Dried him. Whispered to him.
I dont know if youll make it, little one but at least you wont die alone.
She stayed awake all night. Him, curled against her chest.
Her, holding him as if he were more than just a cat.
Against all odds, the cat lived.
More than livedhe walked again.
Ate again.
Purred again.
Every time Sarah came home from work, hed hobble to the door.
Even without a tail.
Even with a limp.
They named him Paddle.
For the struggle of rowing against the tide.
Months passed. With the cat came routine. Warmth.
Sarah laughed again. Slept without tension. Spoke aloud, knowing someone listened even if he didnt reply.
One Sunday afternoon, as Paddle dozed in her lap, her friend Claire asked,
Do you realise it wasnt you who saved him?
Sarah looked up. What dyou mean?
That cat arrived when you needed him most. When you were fading. He was your reminder.
Sarah glanced down.
Paddle lay there, belly exposed, whiskers twitching, his small body pressed to hers as if they were one.
And then she understood.
She hadnt adopted him.
Hed chosen her.
Not all adoptions come with paperwork.
Some just need a chance meeting, a wound, and a heart willing to love whats still broken.
Now, whenever someone asked why shed never married, had children, or settled down properly, Sarah would say,
Not all of us adopt children. Some of us adopt souls.
And sometimes those souls meow.
**”Some beings arrive uninvited but stay as if they were always meant to.”**
