After she had been in my home for six months, I picked up one of those cat magazines and discovered that she was probably related to the Korat, those ancient, good-natured Thai cats who lived in temples. She had the deep green eyes, the fur that looked charcoal gray to silver, depending upon the light, delicate velvet feet, and even the little white spot on her chest. I had also discovered that she was good natured, but frightened. She had been discovered, sitting mournfully next to her dead mother, when she was only a few days old. The mother had been run over by a car. A brother also survived, but he was so traumatized that even the shelter lady thought he could never be adopted.
As for Cinder, she had remained at the shelter for a whole year. She had one eye that wouldn't open, which the vet thought had been caused by Herpes. I gave her oculotrophic concentrate and L-Lysine in her food, and her eye soon opened and proved to be as brillant a green as the other eye.
I think the fact that my French students are all cat lovers and that they all fell in love with Cinder helped enormously in her becoming so friendly. Now she sits behind them and chews their hair, lies in their laps and goes to sleep, or joins in my French classes by chattering at certain sounds. She also chatters whenever I cough, and she sleeps on my bed every night with the Maine Coon she raised, who now outweighs her by seven pounds.