Apparently, it was National Pet Day this week. I wouldn’t want to miss the chance to extol the virtues of pets, especially my beloved cat Lipstick. For those of you who don’t know, I’m just one ugly cat sweater away from being that single, crazy cat lady who lives in a house full of cats. To be fair, I only have one cat and am restricted from expanding my cat portfolio by condo rules, for now. But a girl can dream.
Lipstick took over my life shortly after I moved to California when neighbors repeatedly found her roaming through our little neighborhood. Her previous owners had another cat they favored and wanted a new home for her. I freed her from the bonds of her previous name Truffles, which had no power, and renamed her Lipstick because of the markings around her mouth that look like you missed with your lipstick. See photo above.
She is an absolutely awesome cat and everyone who knows her agrees. She’s friendly, cuddly, attentive but fiercely independent, like me. I’ve always admired how she seems capable of asking for exactly what she needs. When I walk in, she’s perched in the doorway and will usually roll over and expose her belly as though to say, “Thank God you are home. Can you please rub my belly now?” Then, she’ll declare that tender moment over and wander off to a warm perch somewhere for a nap.
She’s small but mighty. For an eight pound being, she takes up a lot of the bed and forces me to rearrange around her. If I’m slow getting her food in the morning, she rubs against my leg incessantly until I comply. When I’m on the computer too long, she’ll straddle the keyboard, making impossible any effort to work. She’s shredded furniture, vomitted in inconvenient places, and escaped frequently enough to be known as a Freedom Fighter.
But when she curls up on me, all is well in my world.
Boonedoggler 