The Shortest Month of the Year

Yes, tomorrow begins one of the longer months, spring break-time notwithstanding (2 weeks until Disneyland, only 2 more weeks!). Today was one of the few days that I seriously thought about getting a new cat, after stopping at Petco for cat food. Still, I'm fairly certain I didn't miss out on anything extra-special. Not to say the cats we saw for adoptions weren't all quite adorable (or as adorable as a cat can be when staring out the cold bars of a small metal cage), but with both of our cats, when we spent less than one minute with them, we knew.

Of course, I'm not supposed to have a favorite cat, but I do; our younger cat, a three-year old named Crookshanks. Yes, my wife and I have now fulfilled our small fanaticism to the Harry Potter series by naming both cats after characters from that world. With Crookshanks, it was an almost automatic connection, mostly because she was smart enough to suck up to me just the right amount. This was almost 2 and a half years ago, at the sole PetsMart in Flagstaff (is it PetSmart or PetsMart? You know what I mean, either way). Originally, we had just one cat, a Siamese named Hermione (her first name was Lolly, but what kind of name is that?). My in-laws were intending on giving us one of their cats, a Russian Blue named Tarot, but due to medical problems, Tarot passed on in late October of 2006.

The day after that sad news, I went to the pet store and, as I did all the time, walked over to the adoption center to look at the available cats and saw one named Fluffy. And she was a pretty big fluffball of a cat, and surprisingly similar-looking to Tarot, though the Russian Blue doesn't have wild fur like this Fluffy did. She looked quite playful in her little cage, but I was only able to do then what I always did: leave the adoption center. That night, however, my wife and I ended up going back to the pet store, where I pointed out Fluffy to her. Within a few minutes, in part because of my wife's cooing and in part because I was very close to wanting the cat more than my wife did, we wound up in the back of the adoption center, where the pet store employee opened up Fluffy's cage. She, I'm sure, didn't recognize me from earlier, but as soon as the cage opened, she began purring up a storm, rubbing against both of us. So, it was love.

And now we've had these two for quite a time, happy as clams are we all. But, you never know, maybe another cat is on the way. All depends on how they strike our fancy.

And with that, I close out February at this blog. Next month brings movie reviews and Disneyland. Be here or, as Apu said, kindly be square.