Eugenia

I'm really not much of a cat person. It wasn't until about a year ago when I was sitting for the Pierzniks and I read magazines with their cat on my lap that I thought it might actually be nice to have one around.

Growing up my dad was allergic so we kept our two cats (Ginger and Love) outside. They were sorta feisty and we never really gave them much care or attention. Seemed I was always trying to duck inside the front door before one or the other took a clawed swipe at me.

Ginger, one time, got into the back yard where we kept the two dogs (Hershey and Jesse) I heard a commotion and looked out the window just in time to see the two dogs using her like a tug-a-war. I yelled but they didn't stop and eventually Ging got away, up and over the back fence. She was gone for like a week and I didn't know if she would come back. We eventually lost her when she hid out one night in our huge Ford Econoline Van. My dad came to pick me up from a party and when I opened the door to get in, Ging shot out into the dark foreign neighborhood never to be seen again. I worried about her for weeks and eventually moved on.

Love's demise is a mystery. Anyone remember what happened to her? I seem to recall that wild raccoons used to eat out of her food dish on the porch and eventually she caught some sort of raccoon madness. Her hair fell out and she stared walking like a cat zombie. Then again I've never had a memory worth trusting.

All that aside. Today was a difficult day. I have these glorious three day weekends every week since I work four ten hour shifts Monday-Thursday. Some weeks it's nice like last week when we went rafting and camping. This weekend it's tough because there isn't a lot to do, and even when there is stuff to do...I still only have a small group of friends to spend time with. Frustratingly several of them are from here and they always seem to have family activities to go to.

Well I spent the entire day keeping pretty busy with cleaning and cooking, paying the bills. That sort of thing all the while trying to call and text folks to see if they wanted to hang out tonight. Sam was working, Brandon had a family baptism, Andy was in Seattle, Christine was in Heber, and Lynds was on a date. It was pretty depressing. It got bad enough that for one minute I actually considered just getting in my car and driving to Portland and not coming back. Blerg.

I decided to head to the Pow Wow by myself (Something Brandon had told me was a bad idea). It just seemed dumb to let something cool like a Pow Wow pass me by and just miss out. As I got in my car to leave Robbie called and asked if I wanted to go with his family to the Pow Wow. Seriously answer to prayer.

When I got to his house...what did I find but the tiniest little kitten, meowing it's lungs out. Robbie's brother had come back from a job yesterday and the cat had popped out from under the hood. It was an hour drive and the poor thing was in there the entire way. The kitty looked so much like Ginger that I couldn't resist picking it up. I was on the phone with my dad who quickly reminded me of this story where an Oregon man was bitten by a cat and is now dying from the plague. Awesome right!

Thanks Dad.

So we stuck the cat in the garage while we pow wowed and I just got home after picking up some kitty food. The kitty has a lot of attachment problems and will probably be pretty needy for awhile....but I've got to say that she just might be the right kind of companion to help me feel a little less lonely out here.

I've been wanting a dog for a while. I was going to name him Eugene, so for now I'm going to call the cat Eugenia or Genie.