I KNOW. Last month I said I was definitely never ever never getting a cat. I’m SOOOoooOOO changeable. (Or, as one of my friends put it, Archie was a gateway drug.) The thing is, I never really gave up on the idea of adopting a cat, though in my head the timeline was a lot longer than it actually ended up being. Then on the Friday before Halloween I happened to open Facebook and see a photo of a little cat who had been with a local rescue for a year. At that point, it occurred to me that I could keep doing what I was doing and become a bitter old woman who goes ballistic over every spot on the floor, or I could become a bitter old woman with a cat.
The cat won.
I’ve named her Circe. It’s funny how things work out: I had originally envisioned myself with a witchy black cat, which I was for the record planning to name Harrow, but I also decided early on that if that one perfect cat came along – i.e., an adult female cat who likes to cuddle, isn’t actively destructive, and definitely never sticks her head in the toilet while I’m on it, ahem, Archie – the color of her fur would not be the hill on which I would choose to die. And I cannot overstate how perfect Circe is. She is a diluted calico, and the patches on her fur make her look like a Japanese brush painting. She is soft and silky and 1000% a lap cat, she lets me pick her up and snuggle her (up to a point), she sleeps in my bed every night, she hasn’t tried to destroy my furniture (yet), she observes some basic boundaries while guarding me on the toilet, and she hasn’t stopped purring once since I let her out of her carrier. I always had “Circe” in mind for her name, but over the last couple of days I’ve been gradually realizing how well the name actually suits her because her rickety little meows honest to Zeus recall the actual character Circe, whose comparatively weak voice is regularly mocked by more powerful gods. I can’t wait to start telling people she was named after the Titan witch who turned men into pigs.
I am still freaked out by the fur and the litter trails all over the apartment, but this was the best decision I’ve ever made. I love my sweet girl. I was drawn to her when I first saw her on Petfinder because she was described as opinionated with a side of sweet and spicy, and, well, hello. Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to adopt at that time, so I kind of forgot about her until she popped up again on Facebook, this time with a note saying she had been at the rescue for a year without any applications. It was a perfect storm: I had just started to come around to the idea of adopting (after recovering from babysitting Archie, lol), I saw her post sometime around midnight or maybe even later (always a great time for making life-changing decisions), and all the kitty reels I’d been watching ganged up on me and got me to put in an application the next day. I sincerely did not expect to have a cat within the week, but then my application got approved on Wednesday, and on Thursday the shelter manager texted me about setting up a meeting. On Sunday Circe came home with me, and over the four days she’s been here I have taken exactly 97 photos and two videos of her.
Here, for instance, is Circe watching a 36-year-old man eat the entire Cheesecake Factory menu:
And here is Circe waiting for me to get done with work, which didn’t happen till 1:30 on this particular night JFC that wasn’t fun:
And here is Circe claiming my wrist in the name of France:
And here is Circe taking a completely inconvenient nap on my trackpad:
And here is Circe stealing my arm, which I suppose I wasn’t really using anyway, it’s fine:
And here is Circe getting her beauty sleep after stealing/mauling my arm and I swear to every god there is I am going to ask the vet to give her a pawdicure when I take her in for her first check-up:
And here is Circe updating her blog:
And here is Circe being introduced to GBBO:
And here is Circe being tHE BEST GIRL SHE IS NEVER ALLOWED TO LEAVE ME ILYSMLILBIDKTY
She has been such pleasant company. I was told that she would need a quiet house with no other pets, and I’m so glad I am able to provide that for her. She is going to remain an only child for sure. I am a first-time cat mom, and I know for a fact that I will not be able to handle a second pet. But also I really love that it’s just me and her, and I love her habit of crawling into my arms and snuggling up, whether I’m at my desk or in bed or on the couch. I could do without her habit of using my laptop as a pillow when I’m on a deadline, but, well, nobody’s perfect. She sparks so much joy every time I look at her. I would say I should’ve done this a long time ago, but if I’d done this a long time ago then I wouldn’t have met Circe, so everything really has worked out just right. I forgive her for pulling the doorstop off my bedroom door on her first day.
Things I have learned over the last four days:
- Circe is definitely way more chill than Archie. I can actually eat for minutes at a time without fending a nosy cat away from my plate. She also is less interested in exploring my counters than Archie was.
- I can come up with a raft of stupid nicknames at the drop of a hat. I already knew that from Archie, but, anyway. So far Circe has been called Sweetheart, Sweetpea, Sweetiepie, Big Eyes, My Precious, Puddy Tat, Widdy Bitty Kitty, Widdy Kitty, Itty Kitty, Rickety Bickety, Rickets Bickets, Rickets, Bickets, and probably more that I’m not remembering because there are so many of them.
- Circe is fully capable of jumping up onto my bedroom windowsill, which I thought would be too high for her to reach. I am going to look into buying her a tall stool so she can get up more easily. I’m also thinking about buying a wicker chest for the foot of my bed, both for storage and so I can put a blanket over it and make a nice place for her to hang out while I’m working.
- Circe has learned how to open my closet door. I am less pleased about this.
- I am absolutely the kind of person who will take completely unrelated cues from other people as signs from the universe. Sometime around the time of Circe’s Facebook post – possibly even the same day – I happened to see a thread from Lupita Nyong’o talking about overcoming her fear of cats to adopt her cat Yoyo. I don’t even follow her, but she popped up on my feed and it really felt like the universe was giving me a nudge. (Plus all the cat reels didn’t hurt. If Circe were literate, I would tell her to send a thank you DM to ringodanyan.)
- It is surprisingly satisfying to go back to the rescue’s Facebook page and see that they’ve updated their Circe posts with a note saying she’s been adopted. Even nicer, I got 50% off the adoption fee because one of the rescue volunteers is covering half of every fee for every cat adopted this month. It really felt like it was meant to be.
- I really am a cat person after all.
- Pet supplies are shockingly expensive.
Future Circe adventures will be found under this tag.
First-Time Pet Mom Goes to Petsmart, You Won’t Believe What Happened Next
But also, like, why won’t my fuzzy daughter use the special bed I bought for her? T_T
