Kim

First there were Mimo and Mimí.

Many years later the three tuxedo sisters arrived: Kourtney, Klóe and Kim. And between Kim and Klóe, it was Klóe who first tried to move into our house. Klóe came in. She felt comfortable. She seemed ready to stay. But she still belonged to the neighboring family. So Pablo took her back home.

Then her sister arrived. Kim.

And with Kim things would be different.

Kim was curious. Self-assured. Affectionate. Observant. And, it must be admitted… a little bit conceited. She did not come running one day and decide everything immediately. First she observed.

The house. Diva. Pablo. Mimí. The routines. The food. The places where she could rest. Everything. She seemed to be making her own assessment. As if we were not the ones deciding whether we wanted to adopt a cat.

She was the one deciding whether she wanted to adopt us.

And apparently we passed the inspection.

No one went out looking for Kim. There was no family conversation saying: “We’re going to adopt a cat.” There was no ceremony. There was no plan. Kim simply began to come. She came in. She explored. She settled in. She returned. And little by little something very simple happened: she stopped leaving.

Klóe had tried to move in first and we had taken her back. Kim, on the other hand, seemed to have made a far more definitive decision.

I live here.

Kim, if she could speak

And that was practically all. Once Kim decided our house was her house… she never left again.

In time we understood something. The traditional story says a family finds an animal and decides to adopt it. But with Kim it did not happen exactly like that. We did not go out looking for her. We did not choose her from a list. We did not decide where she should live.

Kim made that decision. She chose the house. She chose her favorite spots. She chose her routines. And, above all… she chose us. That is why we have always said that, in reality:

we did not adopt Kim. Kim adopted us.

In those days Kim wore an AirTag. She still officially belonged to the neighboring family. But it was becoming more and more evident that Kim had already decided where she wanted to live. Her former owner finally understood the situation. And one day he handed Kim’s AirTag to Diva and Pablo.

It was almost like a small and very informal “custody transfer.” Kim had made the decision. The humans simply ended up formalizing the terms.

But choosing a new house did not mean forgetting the people she had lived with before. When Kim met her former owner, she recognized him. She greeted him. That bond still existed. We can perfectly imagine Kim saying:

So good to see you!… but I live here.

Kim, if she could speak

And that is an important part of her story. Kim could love her first family and, at the same time, be absolutely clear about where her home was now.

Of course, Kim had not arrived in empty territory. Mimí was there. The elder. The cat who had been part of that place from much earlier. Mimí had every reason in the world to look at the newcomer and think:

I was here first.

Mimí, if she could speak

And Kim seemed perfectly capable of replying:

Yes, yes… very interesting.

Kim, if she could speak

And keep walking. Because cats can hold entire conversations without saying a single word. Mimí had seniority. But Kim had… well… personality. A lot of personality.

In time, Kim created her own routines. She knew where to eat. Where to sleep. Where to observe. Where to receive affection. And where to supervise. She could leave the house. Sometimes she took a little walk for ten or fifteen minutes. She explored. She looked around. She did her cat business. And then… she came back.

She always came back. Not because she was locked in. Not because anyone forced her. She came back because she knew perfectly well where her home was. Her home was there. With Diva. With Pablo. With Mimí. And, over time, more and more with her sister Klóe, who never stopped visiting us.

The house began to receive people from many places. Different countries. Different languages. Different cultures. And many of them ended up meeting Kim. Kim decided, apparently, that receiving guests was also part of her responsibilities. She approached. She observed. She received affection. She gave affection. She slept. She ate. And she supervised. Always supervised.

As time went by, hundreds of comments and reviews began to appear. And something happened that no one had planned: guests began to mention Kim spontaneously. They described her as adorable. Sweet. Affectionate. Memorable. A French guest even wrote an expression we never forgot:

Someone else wrote that Kim had quickly become part of their stay.

The funny thing is that Kim knew absolutely nothing about any of that. She did not know what a review was. She did not know what five stars were. She did not know what the Internet was. And she certainly knew nothing about marketing. She was simply Kim. She came closer when she wanted. She slept where she wanted. She asked for affection when she wanted. She observed everything. And she made sure things worked according to her standards.

Without meaning to, that cat who one day simply decided to move in was becoming one of the most memorable parts of the house.

And so something happened that was not planned either. First Kim arrived. Then she observed. Then she chose. Then she stayed. Then she became family. And finally… she became The Boss.

Diva and Pablo could look after the house. They could organize. They could receive the guests. They could handle practically everything. But there were certain matters that clearly belonged to Kim’s department:

The title The Boss was not born because we needed to invent a character for her. It was born because it described perfectly the cat we already knew.

Kim did not need anyone to name her boss. She already held the position.

Kim was persistent. Affectionate. Curious. Self-assured. And perhaps a little too convinced of her own importance. But precisely because of that, there came a moment when it was impossible to imagine that house without her.

No one went out looking for Kim. It was she who arrived. It was she who observed. It was she who chose. We can imagine her looking at Diva and Pablo after finishing her long inspection and thinking:

Yes. These are mine.

Kim, if she could speak

And acting accordingly. Kim is a cat no one went out to look for… but who found exactly the people she was looking for.

Mimí had seniority. Klóe had tried to come first. But Kim arrived later and made a decision that would change the whole story: she stayed. And from that decision, many years later, Kim & Klóe would be born.