Baht and the Sukhumvit Cat Fair

Every autumn there is a small cat fair in a hall off Sukhumvit, and for the past three years Baht has been my reluctant plus-one. She is a four-year-old Domestic Shorthair with a grey tabby coat. She came to me from a shelter in Ekkamai when she was barely a year old, thin and suspicious of everything. This year she walked in with her head high and her tail straight up. There were rows of cat beds, rescue stalls, and a man selling handmade toys shaped like fish. Baht ignored all of it until she spotted a small kitten in a cardboard box near the back, and then she sat beside the box for twenty minutes as if she were its guardian. I remember thinking how much she has changed since that first shelter visit. She used to hide under the bed for days. Now she chooses who she wants to sit near, and today it was a stranger's kitten. We bought the fish toy and took it home. Baht still ignores it, which I think is her way of saying she's happy.