This past December 1st, to mark the beginning of the Christmas season, my boyfriend bought me probably the best gift I could have ever received-- MY VERY OWN CAT. 

Though I’ve lived with cats since I was a small child, they’ve always been the family pets. And in our family, we usually never just had one cat. Even though my dad was (and still is) allergic, my mother’s love for the feisty felines overshadowed it. Lucky for me (and my mother), we always got to have multiple cats anyway. 

          My mom’s logic behind always having more than one cat, was that it made her depressed to think of the poor cat being all alone while everyone was gone during the day at school or work. So, if we had one cat, it just had to have a playmate. 

The one thing my mother loved more than cats, was kittens. She loved it when our cats had kittens. Now, looking back, older and wiser,  we definitely should not have been letting our cats breed kittens upon kittens. Especially with the pet overpopulation being as out of control as it is. 

          According to The Human Society, Four million cats and dogs—about one every eight seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year.But, my mother wanted my sister and I to experience the same childhood joy she did, when her and her siblings raised kittens. So, we always had kittens in the house. 

          By the time I was in elementary school, word eventually got around that we were a family of cat lovers, and every time one of our friends found a stray kitten or cat, they would drop them off at our house. And obviously we weren’t just going to put them back out on the street to fend for themselves, so we always took them in. 

          Although raising kittens was a delight, I find that one of the biggest joys is owning your own cat. I look back now, and don’t know how we managed to care for that many animals, because I sure as hell have my hands full with just my one Maine Coon, Lincoln. 
          That's what I had planned to write about initially-- how I obtained my cat Lincoln. My boyfriend Nickolas told me that he was going to surprise me, but I had no inclination as to what the surprise would even be. He made me where a blindfold, as he drove me to an animal shelter in Santa Rosa, so I literally had no idea where we were going. When we got to the animal shelter, I thought he had set up a playdate of some sort, where I would get to play with all the kittens... I was beyond excited. We were led into this small room and asked to wait. In less than five minutes, a woman came back in holding three large carriers full of kittens! And this is where I think I may have blacked out for a few minutes because I was so ecstatic to be in the presence of that many kittens, that I literally thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest when Nickolas told me to pick out my favorite one so we could take it home!

It didn't take me long to realize which one I wanted-- the big gray, fluffy one. He was the most relaxed and calm, and so so so so so SOFT, I couldn't even stand it. 

I am so happy to say that this was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and Lincoln and I make a happy couple!