All of us missed our cat Higgins after he died, including our other cat, Chelsea. She walked around the house for a week meowing piteously for him. I decided this was a great excus-err, reason, to check out the local animal shelter, ostensibly to find a new companion for Chelsea, to reduce her loneliness. Mind you, I did not inform Point Man about this, but he had not disagreed about getting another cat, so I took that as tacit approval.

The staff at the Humane Society were wonderful. If you ever get a pet, I highly recommend going to your local shelter. The kids came with me so the staff knew the age levels and personalities of the kids that our new pet would be interacting with, and we told them that we also had a 20 year old cat at home. They knew right away which cats and kittens would do well with us and which wouldn't, which narrowed the field quickly. There were 3 cats and a kitten that we decided would make good members of the family, and we petted and played with all 4 of them. Finally we had to make the difficult decision between Tommy and Joey, who were both wonderful cats. Joey seemed to like the kids more than Tommy did though, and when I asked the gal who was working with us which cat she thought would work best, she pointed without hesitation at Joey. So, after paperwork and purchase of some cat items, Joey came home with us.

He's done amazingly well, He got home, and Chelsea decided that she was not as lonely as she thought she was. Her reaction was to hiss loudly and run out of the room. He just sat there, completely unbothered by the whole thing. She's still hissing at him from time to time, but her curiosity gets the better of her, now, and so she'll try to sneak up on him to sniff him. That works til he sees her and turns around, and then she hisses at him and runs off again. She's making progress, however.

Joey adapted to life in our home immediately, and he's a big cuddlebug. When we sit down, he'll jump in our laps, put his paws on our shoulders, and nuzzle our faces, purring loudly. He's a large cat, so this works well for adults. This particular maneuver is what convinced Point Man that yes, he actually did like 'the Melon-head' after all. I thought our cat was rather brilliant for doing that. Joey's discovered that he's too big for our daughter, however. When he put his paws on her shoulder and stood up, he was actually taller than her. He doesn't have the same personality and savoir faire as Higgins did--I don't think any cat could. However, I think he's perhaps even more loving, and we've needed that.

There's Joey at the top of the page, lounging in our windowsill.