Last December I welcomed a new addition into my life: a small black kitten. We rescued him from Paws4Ever animal shelter in Mebane (a great place to save a pet, if you are from the area and thinking of adopting!), where he was romping around the kitty room and mildly suffering from a cat cold that made one of his eyes all sad and squinty and pathetic. In short, he was adorable. We named him Dexter after he scaled the baby gate we had originally intended to keep him downstairs; he was a crafty, troublemaking kitty.
This is what he looked like when we brought him home:
Oh my, he was so tiny, with his sad and squinty eye.
This is him in the cutest picture I ever took of him ever, long after his kitty-cold and pink-eye cleared up:
And this is more or less what he looks like now, at approximately 8 or 9ish months and growing up:
And yes, that carpeted monstrosity from which he is hanging is one of those hideous cat-climbers that only insane cat owners purchase. Because that is what I (and yes, Jon too) have become, an insane cat owner. All we do is talk about this cat. I am sure our friends hate us, because this cat is the gravitational force in our conversational and physical lives right now. He is the sun, albeit it a black sun, and tiny, and we are the simpering planets revolving about him, feeding him expensive organic cat food, cleaning his litter without fail every other day and feeding him bits of chicken and tuna and roast beef (the cat eats better than we do, truly). Dexter, you see, is the boss.
Cat owners warn you about this, they try, they fail. Kittens, they are so cute, so innocuous. But cats, man, they’re the boss.
Granted, we have been lucky with our little cat. He is incredibly friendly, not at all skittish, and he keeps his scratching to the pet-store approved scratching posts and cat climbing monstrosities. Contents that should remain in the litter box stay in the litter box and we’ve only had one incident of hair-ball itis. Since he is short haired the shedding is minimal.
In all honesty I think I have the greatest cat in the world.
So there, I’ve said it. I LOVE MY CAT. I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THIS. I AM A CRAZY CAT PERSON. If I did not have a boyfriend then I would be a total cliche, truly.
The Dilettantista 
My feelings in a nutshell!! I NEVER thought I would be a cat person – couldn’t stand them when I was younger in fact. Then, my little poof ball of a kitten came into my life and it all went out the window. He’s 7 now and it scares me so bad because I don’t know what I’d do without him!! Talk about overly-extensive vet checkups to make sure that nothing is wrong! Anyway, I’m totally with you – those little creatures have a way of turning people.