You’ve got a friend – or not…

Everything in life happens for a reason, for a season or a lesson.

This time around the lesson was that nothing was permanent.

I learned this after my neighbour and her partner moved last month and took along the stray cat they adopted.

Never did I think I would miss my neighbour so much – the weird cat lady who spent time in the bush learning about plants and adopting strays.

I don’t remember how we met, but before I knew it, I had a new best buddy. We had daily tea-drinking sessions after work to the point where I became an accomplice in sourcing plant cuttings from the complex garden with my new BFF (best friend for life).

She eagerly shared her knowledge of plants and her interesting life story with me – and I am a sucker for a good story.

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Soon I saw my neighbours every single day. They even took care of me when I was sick and, like a good bloom, the friendship would grow.

But as the saying goes, everything went great until it didn’t. Things went from best friends to strangers in a matter of days.

It all started when I asked my neighbour to take care of my cat while I was away on a work trip, in exchange for her having a sneaky smoke break at my house.

Besides, by this time the friendship had grown so strong that we were having each other over for dinner, buying each other birthday gifts and sharing plants – until I didn’t come home one night.

In my defence, driving from Cape Town to Johannesburg over four days was exciting, but tiring – which was why I stopped at my partner’s house on my way home that evening.

My promise to return home that day and have a cup of tea was broken when I arrived at my partner’s house for a hello and a coffee, which turned into an unplanned sleepover. This meant I arrived back home from my work trip one day later – or in my mind, one meal later.

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My first mistake was forgetting to let them know I wasn’t coming home that night.

The second mistake was skipping to their back door after a well-rested night to tell them about my adventure across the country, not knowing they were so worried about my late return they couldn’t sleep.

For the first time I heard my neighbour criticising the condition of my cat – ironically after being in their care – but that was not the issue, was it?

In my defence, my cat, without fail, runs out the front door every morning as if he has been held captive for years. He tends to be dramatic.

The calm after the storm turned into complete silence. They cancelled the Christmas dinner and we never spoke again.

No Merry Christmas or Happy New Year. In fact, they started using the front door suddenly, instead of the back door.

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Around the end of the month, I noticed the backdoor opening to my side of the yard for the first time in months and curiously peeked through the window to see what the neighbours were up to. Turned out it was moving day for them; off with the curtains, out came the furniture, on to the moving truck.

The former stray complex cat was collared and packed in the move. It was a shock. I have grown fond of the friendship.

As they carried out the last boxes, I went to the gate and asked them if they were ready for their next adventure.

The owner of the unit sold the property, they had to move – not because of me or my cat.

At least I got to greet them and close that chapter of my life with the conclusion that some people come into your life for a season, some for a reason and others for a lesson.