Clarice Gay

Clarice Gay came to my house to adopt a cat who looked like it was ignoring her. Although Clarice Gay was African-American, she looked EXACTLY like my Italian mother with both of them having dyed blonde hair. I had a photograph of my mother in a frame. I showed it to Clarice and she said, "Wow! That looks exactly like me!" Anyway, I happen to be psychic with some animals. In this case, it was a double whammy because I was reading Clarice and the cat. "That cat isn't interested in me!" Said Clarice. "Oh no! You are so wrong. She just told me that she wants to sit in your lap while you are knitting!" (Clarice hadn't mentioned that she loves to knit!) Clarice gasped! "If she does that, I will never go on vacation and love her forever!" "She just told me that she wants you to put a chair near the front door, and put a pillow on it, so she can wait on the pillow for you to come home!" "Now I know you're full of it!" said Clarice. "Listen, if I am lying, I'll have to rent a cab to go all the way to Far Rockaway to pick up the cat! So take her home. Start knitting and when you leave to go buy kitty litter and cat food, put the pillow on the chair by the front door." Usually cats hide the first day, but that did not happen. A few hours later Clarice called. She told me that "GYPSY" (her new name that Clarice gave her) jumped in her lap as soon as she started knitting. She went to the store for cat food and when she came home "Gypsy" was on the pillow by the front door. 16 years later, I called her up and she said that she had loved "Gypsy" for 16 years and never went on a vacation because she loved her so much! Every now and then I think about Clarice and "Gypsy" and how much she looked like my Mom. Clarice was only two years older than my mother who also loved cats.