Hi,

My sweet Julie the Calico Princess is the only cat I have ever actually "had", as opposed to just feeding them on the front stoop and seeing them for a few months before they disappear.

Julie is an extremely sweet creature. She was an adult stray who was abandoned by some people in the neighborhood over eight years ago. At first she was very needy and clingy, almost to the point that I did not think I could handle her! I was that close to taking her to the pound....and boy am I glad I didn't!

I was recovering from a severe depression at the time, and she was just what the doctor ordered. We were both neurotic and lonely, but over the years have both come to feel a whole lot better. Julie used to swat and bite "out of nowhere", like I have read about other cats doing. But she has pretty well dropped this behavior. I think it is because I have learned just how to stroke her without annoying her, and how to read her signals that she is ready for me to stop.

She is often on my lap or in my bed, especially when it's cold! I have noticed as she has gotten older, she is not as likely to spend long times in my lap, but she still needs my loving and certainly misses me when I am gone. She never does like being picked up, which is only a problem when it's time for the vet...and she will sometimes fight me for the bedclothes. But I have learned to get the catnip out and put it on another part of the bed, when Julie is lying on the top of the sheets and I need to get into bed. That always gets her to move out of my way!

I tend to want to get another female when, God forbid, Julie leaves me, because she has been so dainty and feminine and such a sweet little angel. In some ways, like one person said, she has been like a best girlfriend to me. I treat her like an equal or a roommate, not as an animal. She's not "just" an animal...she is a furperson!

One factor that may play a role--many people who have written in have multicat households. I have resisted bringing in any other cats, and this may have helped cement the bond between Julie and me, which seems to grow deeper with every passing year.

Take care,