Tigre was a gray tiger kitten I got when I was in first or second grade - I don't remember which because I had the same teacher for both.  I was attending a bilingual school so I thought it would be clever to name my kitten "Tigre" which is the Spanish word for "tiger."  I'm still not sure what my mother was thinking when she bought me the cat because I was clearly not old enough to take care of it the way it should have been so she was left with all cat responsibilities.  Combined with working full time, taking care of two kids and doing it all as a single parent, the poor kitty was very neglected.  I shudder when I think about the mistreatment and whatever peace I can find comes from the fact that he was eventually given away to my half brother to go live on a farm.  Tigre had no claws and had no real interaction with any other kind of animal but I choose to believe that he went to on to live a long healthy life and died at an old age while chasing mice.

Kash is another kitten that managed to get into my life despite my best intentions.  She was being rescued from being sent to the Humane Society when she came to live with us and though I didn't particularly want her, I was the one who was home days so I was the one who had to take her to the vet and teach her to stay off the kitchen counters and eventually... we connected.

Well, for her it was more immediate.  From almost day one she would snuggle up against my left leg at night and I would wake up with a cat on the bed - and she learned that she couldn't start walking on me until I rubbed my eyes to wake up.  When she started fetching it would only be for me and I was somehow able to call her in from the dark (most nights) just by calling her name... and even when I moved to a different room she was still right there on the bed when I woke up in the morning.

She's currently in State College but I'll be going there to pick her up in a couple of weeks.  She's going to come back to Indy to live with me and it will be quite an adjustment for her.  She's used to being and indoor/outdoor cat and catching birds and grasshoppers in the back yard.  Now she's going to become an apartment cat and will have to settle for catching mice if they should happen to find their way in... I hope they don't.  Still, I hope she'll be happy and I look forward to having her on the bed with me again - it's been too long!

Oh yeah, that's also my subtle way of letting people know that I'll be in State College in early October.  I've got a wedding to attend on October 11 and Jeffrey will be coming with me to perform that evening as a part of Penn State's National Coming Out Week events.  I can't wait to see people and I hope to connect with as many of my PA friends as I can squeeze into such a short time.  Plans are still being developed, but I'll post something when I know our schedule for sure!