Come the the Dark Side...We have Catnip!

Growing up, I was strictly a cat person. There's a picture of me somewhere, five years old, sitting on the floor, bathed in sunlight, cradling a kitten. A look of utter bliss graces my face. This was my first foray into the world of Cat People. Then, there was the stray cat I spent an entire summer, trying to entice the poor creature out of our dilapidated garage and closer to the back porch, just so I can tame it and give it a better home. She, and her eventual kitten lived with our family for almost twenty years.

When I started out in my adult life with my husband, we eventually adopted cats with various unfortunate, short-lived results until finally I was given two white kittens who became a part of our growing family's lives for many years until old age took them. During that time, my husband added a dog to the mix, since he was decidedly a Dog Person. To my surprise I became extremely attached to this slobbery mess; so much so, we got another dog. After Bud passed away and left our corgi without doggy companionship, we added another corgi, because like potato chips, you just can't have one, or so I am told.

So, to say the least, I had become a card-carrying Dog Person. No more cats. Not that I stopped liking cats, I just didn't want to be owned by one. Until today.

I'm used to my husband bringing home some strange things from the factory where he works. I never thought he'd bring home this:



He had bonded with this cat when he discovered her litter of kittens. The kittens stayed feral unfortunately and were eventually rounded up in a factory-wide wild animal trapping campaign. Knowing the local situation of over-run animal shelters that no longer take in stray cats and the new "kill stray" law in our county, my husband spared this cat from euthanasia. Sadly, her kittens will not be able to avoid that fate.

My daughter, in some strange Viking stage, has named her "Valhalla". Val hasn't met the corgis yet. That will be a slow acclimation, for sure. I hope all goes well, because it took me all of three seconds of holding this fluffy, purring fae-like creature to remind me that I am still a Cat Person after all.


Postscript: Anyone who makes any comments along the lines of "It has no body!!!" will be slapped about the head with a wet trout.

Post-postscript: Courtesy of my smart-ass sister...