Today I just want to write about how much I love my cat.

I have two cats, actually. I love both of them, but one is like the problem child, the one you have to work harder to love. That's Sophie. She's the one who walks around the house in the middle of the night meowing her really loud, annoying meow for hours on end. I have no idea why. I think it's because she's awake and wants every one else to be, too, so that she can have company. She's 11 years old and still completely addicted to her cat toys. The other day, I was vacuuming under the little end table that's squished between the sofa and the wall, and found about a 1000 cat toys, and other things that she's adopted as cat toys, all hidden away under there. Frankly, she's just crazy. And her person of preference is my husband. She's okay with me, but only when she can't get some love out of him.

The other one is Beulah. She's my baby. I found her one afternoon about 10 years ago on the front steps of the apartment building we lived in at the time. It was a big old March blizzard and she was hanging around on the porch and she jumped right in to my arms. I left her outside for another couple of hours, hoping she lived close by and would go home, but when she was still there later in the day I took her in to warm her up and feed her. She was such a sweet little thing and I knew if she was just lost, her owners would be beside themselves, so I put up signs around the neighborhood and took out free notices in the papers, but no one claimed her. I finally convinced my husband to let me keep her and then we realized, about 3 days later, that she was pregnant. He wasn't so happy, but I was overjoyed. I'd never had a pet who had babies before.

She had four kittens and I stayed up all night with her, watching them be born. And then found them all really good homes.

She's always been "my" cat and I've always been "her" person. She has very little interest in other human beings.

I sleep on my side most of the time, and last night, she came and lay on the pillow beside me and put her little face in my hand, like my hand was her pillow, and purred super loudly. Occassionally, she'd stretch out her neck to give my face a little lick and then settle back in to my hand again.

She also likes to burrow under the covers when it's cold and snuggle up next to my back or hip. This morning when I woke up she was lying under the covers next to me, with her head poking out and laying on the pillow beside me. How friggin' cute is that?

And she's black and white, with thick fur like an expensive plush toy, with little white mittens on her feet that have black freckles on them.

Yes, I'm a sucky cat person. But I get more unconditional love from that little ball of black fur than from anyone or anything in my life and she just makes me happy.