Codi and Arcadia

Almost three years ago I moved to D.C. J and I had just gotten engaged and we'd talked extensively about getting a cat when I arrived.

J and I are both cat people, and in fact one of the first signs I had that he was "the one" was that my cat Checkers (who lives with my parents) latched onto him in a big way the first time he met her. She was usually glued to my side when I would come home for the weekend, but the second Juan appeared she dropped me like a hot potato and was loyal only to him.

In any case, we had decided to get a cat of our very own since Checkers was just too old and set in her ways to make the 2,000 mile car trip with me. My dad drove out with me, and at some point along the way he suggested that we get two cats so they could keep each other company while J and I were away every day. Being a cat person, I immediately siezed on this idea and told J that we HAD to get two cats. Two cats would equal twice the snuggles, twice the purring, and twice the fun! It just made sense!

The morning after my dad and I arrived in Washington, I convinced Juan to go to PetSmart's adoption fair with me, "just to look."

Ha! HA HA HA! J has since learned that when I want to "look" at something, I usually mean that I want to "get" it immediately. Delayed gratification isn't something I've learned to appreciate.

So, we looked. There must have been a dozen cats at the adoption center that day--most of them very recent arrivals. This little girl was the first one to catch my eye



She was friendly and talkative, and right away I knew that she was coming home with us. She shared her crate with a slightly shyer cat, who didn't seem very intereseted in getting petted



J really liked her, and after some discussion we decided (well, I decided and J didn't say no) to get them that day. We filled out oodles of paperwork, bought food, a litterbox, and toys, and brought our babies home. By the time we made it into the apartment I'd already named the first one Arcadia (from a book by Isaac Asimov) and the second one Cosima, or Codi for short (from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams.

They were skinny as rails, scared of us, and spent the first few days finding all the good hiding places in their new home. We just fell in love with them, and even though they have a tendency to misbehave, I wouldn't trade them for anything.



Who wouldn't love this face?



Or this one?

Now, if we could just get them to stop waking us up to play every night...