Francis Bird had always been a dog person, but when her beloved husky died a short while ago, Bird’s children had a novel idea.

“Get a cat, mum,” they said.

A confirmed 85-year-old dog lover, Bird was not sold on the idea, but she reluctantly went to a pet shelter near her Peru home.

I mean a cat? Instead of a dog? Lunacy.

“They took me into a large room with just one cat,” Bird recalls. “She saw me and jumped from her perch — ran to the table next to me, scurried up my arm and gave me a big kiss on my cheek. The two attendants exclaimed: “Fran! You’ve been adopted!”

That’s how it goes, isn’t it? Anyone who knows cats knows that it’s never about what the human wants. The wily cat is master of its domain, always, and it has ways of making us do their bidding.

Not to worry, though, everything worked out just fine for Francis Bird.