Kitty, My Cat

I didn't want a cat. I never really liked cats too much. When I thought of owning a cat, all I could picture was hair on all my clothes, and more unwanted, unnecessary responsibility. After all, we already have a dog which consist of all of the above (for me at least). But, regardless of my protests, Frank got "me" eh*hem (him) a cat, and since I had no say in it, the only request I could get him to listen to is that we could only have ONE cat, and that it had to be a boy. We nearly ended up with two cats, as Franks parents at two kittens and they were "best friends" and would be too sad to be apart. The mean wife that I am put her foot down on that one. I was NOT going to have two kittens in my house, which would shed white and black hair everywhere. One it would be, and the boy one please... It was not a boy. Months after we had it I was examining it's backside  (something we forgot to do when we got it) and realized that Tom, was not a tom after all. So "kitty kitty kitty" never got a real girl name, and eventually I decided that it would just be Kitty. I couldn't think of a name that fit it better than Tom!

When I was growing up we had a few cats. They could be friendly once in a while, but mostly they were selfish little beasts who kept to themselves and were good at keeping the mice and bird population down. Franks parents cats were the first personable cats I ever met, but the amount of hair they shed kept me from liking them too much.

When we first got Kitty, I could have drowned it in the toilet. It meowed all night, and eventually we took pity and let it sleep in our bed. Halfway through the night I was woken by a cat batting my ears and licking my face and meowing up a storm. It was not a good start, but by the end of the week we convinced it that there were no monsters in the living room and that it could sleep there. Even so, nearly every morning, the second it hears one of us stir in bed, it is outside our bedroom door mewing and meowing and whining.

I never met such a person-needy cat as Kitty. When I am home it follows me around like a child; always underfoot,  or in my lap. When I bake it sits in a chair next to the table and watches me stir and mix. She's just curious and hardly ever attempts to taste. When I fold laundry she wants to snuggle into my freshly folded piles, or else bats at whatever it is I am folding. When I am at the computer it jumps in my lap over and over and over, no matter how many times I put it down.  If am am outside, she stares out the window meowing to come out. If she is outside for too long, it sits and stares in the window at me meowing to come in! When she is happiest, she purrs and purrs and purrs, and snuggles, and rubs her head in your face. If I lay down, it is snuggling on my stomach or neck or legs, or else just above my head. sometimes she will lay right in front of my face, look in my eyes, and rest both of her paws on my cheek. It's kind of weird, like she is saying "I love you". I never knew a cat that knew how to "love". Dogs can "love", and horses can "love", but cats?? Kitty has chosen me to be her special human. More special that Frank, and even more special than Fia, who spoils her and gives Kitty ham or milk every time she meows. Just don't tell Kitty that I would still give her away most days. Like when she tears up my plants, or meows over and over and over at 5 in the morning. She isn't even a good hunter...yet.

Kitty fawns over house guests, and makes them feel welcome. Maybe a little too welcome... she begs for food from them, climbs in their suitcases while packing or unpacking, and loves to get whatever black item of clothing they just put on covered in white hair. She loves all people. If you come to visit our little house on the hill, I hope you like cats that like you back!