01. [ An introduction, of sorts. ]

See the creature to the left? You know, the one in the box? Yep, that's Leo.

I've been wanting to write a blog - something aside from my livejournal, which is strictly a typed diary of sorts. A smart person somewhere said that you must write about what you know. Well, I'm a trivia dork, but the one thing I know the best is my strange, beautiful feline. I realize this implicates me as a crazy cat lady. Let me point out a few facts that will show otherwise: (1) I have a boyfriend; I love him very much; (2) I'm a productive member of society; I work, I shop, I play, without letting my entire life revolve around my cat; (3) I have no desire whatsoever to retire in a house at the end of the street, rocking in a creaking chair on the front porch while stroking one of several feline companions. So, I'm not one of those cat ladies. I'm girl with a positively nifty cat.

So, here's a history lesson - a nice, little recap of how I found Leo:

• In late August 2005 (the best date I have is 8/29/05), Hurricane Katrina hit. It was horrible. I'm not going to try to describe how horrible, because it's common knowledge to most of us. My brother lived in New Orleans, so I found it all incredibly hard to watch. The Humane Society here had acquired (I'm not sure if they went out and gathered strays or if they were brought or perhaps a combination thereof) a large number of cats and dogs that were stranded/abandoned during the storm and the aftermath. My Dad saw a picture on TV of a beautiful Siamese cat with baby blue eyes and sent me out on a quest to find this cat.
• So, that cat? It was a generic photo - one found via Google Images that was displayed during the news because it was cute. Lovely. I wandered around through the cages of kittens and grown cats. We already had two older cats, so a grown one was pretty much out of the question. Most of the kittens looked sedate. I was getting ready to leave, but then...
• I heard the squeakiest meow - it sounded positively girlie, but to my surprise, there was a boy cat staring at me from inside a cage on the floor. Most of the cats were staring - it's what they do. But, he was staring upside down. He had somehow managed to wiggle his back feet into the top portion of the cage and was hanging upside down like a wild, monkey of a cat. I was in love.
• Did anyone else watch Charmed? It's okay if you didn't; you didn't miss much. Anyway, there was a character on that show that could orb - a form of teleportation. Anytime the main characters needed him, they would shout his name, Leo, and he would appear. So, I looked at this funny little cat and said quite loudly Leo!! to which he replied with a chipper meow. I signed the adoption paperwork, and there you have it.

I've yet to decide how I want to do posts on here - if I want to write about random things or mostly post pictures with silly captions. I haven't figured it out yet. Thoughts/opinions/omg-nic-i-love-you's are quite welcome!

Love & Catnip,

Nicolette