Maguire, the Bow Tie, and the Dilemma

This story starts with a cat. A very splendid cat, who wears a rather dashing bow tie. And this story also starts with a girl. A girl who’s always on the lookout for little vintage finds to clean up and sell on. But this girl – me, myself, and I – has done something very silly. I gave the cat a name. This is Maguire. He’s a vision of green and red, plus a charming bow tie . When I found him he was looking a little skinny, but now he’s as plump and rounded as any cat cushion could wish for.

And now I have a dilemma. You see, I’m very tempted to keep Maguire. I feel like he would fit in well with all our real cats. I imagine, for example, he’d be just as good as they are at sleeping on piles of clean washing. But if I keep everything I’m ever tempted to keep it won’t be long before all I have is lots of (very lovely) stuff cluttering the floor, falling out of cupboards, sitting in drawers, and hiding in boxes. Not only is that not great in terms of messiness, it’s not really the point (or my point) of searching for vintage and second-hand treasures.

Polish it, patch it, clean it – or, in the case of Maguire, fatten it up – then find it a lovely new home. And although Maguire is very sweet and I would love to keep him, I think somewhere there is a home and a chair in need of him and his bow tie. I’m sure he will find them.And in the future I will try my very hardest not to give unusual names to cat cushions…