filling the cat-shaped hole in our lives

To catch up on some of the key events which have shaped and re-shaped our lives in the last several months, this is Skittles. After being catless for six whole months, she came to live with us in February. I had gone to the Animal Shelter many times, and each and every time it made my heart hurt, because if I could, I would've rescued at least a dozen cats and dogs and maybe a couple of rabbits. But trying not to add complexity to our already hectic lifestyle, I knew one cat was all I was going to squeak by with, and even that was up for debate with the family. But as I knew would happen if I kept going, a cat chose me. I was powerless to stop it. After spending her first three days in the deepest recesses of the hall closet, shivering, she has been the funniest, craziest, most loving cat a family could ever hope for. When I heard the non-cat-person partner call himself "daddy" to the cat, I knew he, too, had been weakened by her kryptonite-like powers of cuteness.