A Valentine's Day Tail (meow)

This is Perry, my beloved, most favorite, most bestest cat in the whole wide world. How Perry came to be a part of my family is the quintessential Valentine's Day Tale.

Once upon a time (maybe 1997) when I was a sophomore or junior in high school, I finally convinced my parents to let me get a cat. I had a Spanish teacher, Ms. Canellos, who was a crazy cat lady. She recently rescued a feral kitten and said she would give it to me. It was around Valentine's Day so I decided I would name my new kitten Cupid. The day I was supposed to get Cupid was the happiest day of my life. The minute I saw Ms. Canellos, I knew something terrible had happened. She said that the kitten had run away as she was trying to get her in the carrier. I was shocked. I had bought kitty litter and toys the day before and now I was kittenless. I moped around school for the rest of the day and I told my friends I couldn't bear going to the Valentine's Day dance because I was just too sad.

I went home and told my mom what happened and she was nice enough to say that we could go to the SPCA the next day. If you've never adopted a stray before, walking around the kennels is really depressing because you wish you could just take them all home. Anyway, I remember thinking that none of the cats really stood out to me (they didn't have any kittens at the time). There was a long-haired white cat named Cookie that I considered getting and a really sad, twenty something year-old cat, that had been at the shelter for years which I almost got because I wanted it to live out the rest of its years not in a cage but then I walked by Perry and I asked to see him. I went in and Perry started purring and rubbing against my leg and I thought "Oh, well, this is a nice cat. I like him!" Looking back, it's actually really funny that Perry reacted that way to me because he never ever rubs up against anybody now. So we took Perry home and we all lived happily ever after. The end.

It's been ten years since we adopted Perry and he's now fourteen. I'm quite certain he still has a lot of good years left in him and many more catnaps to take.


I asked my roommates what they love and this is how they responded:

WES: I love the Internet!
CRYSTAL: I love fruits!
and me: I love kitty cats!