A little about me
My first night in my new home
The SOB's
Hi there! My name is Socrates, and I live in Austin, TX, with my family. I will be 13 this coming May. I was born in Miami, Florida, and moved to Austin with my mother when she came here to go to graduate school at the University of Texas. I am the first cat that my mother has ever owned, if you can believe that!
As she has said many, many times, I am the love of her life!
It's a funny story how I came to live with my mother. When she was much younger than she is now, she dated this fella by the name of Brian. My poor mother didn't know much about cats, but this fella Brian had an old Siamese cat named Yoyo. Well, my mother fell in love with this cat.
After Yoyo crossed the Rainbow Bridge, it was empty in Brian's house. They did adopt a tortie from a friend of theirs who had moved away. One day, Brian decided to get my mother a kitten of her own. So off they went to the Miami Humane Society. At this time, all the kittens were off in a separate room where the humans could come and go, and interact with them.
I was already there at this time! But my mother did not notice me at all (hmph!). Instead, she picked this little tabby kitten who had six toes on each foot. She took this kitten home and named her Bela.
But Bela was a very sick kitty, and refused to eat. In the week that my mother had her, she lost over a pound (about half of her weight, since she was only abouy 8 weeks old!). Poor Bela died a week after my mother adopted her, and as you can imagine, my mother was distraught!
But the Humane Society told her that she could come back and take another kitten at no charge. At first she was afraid to, but she did come back that same day.
I was still there. Well, she came into the room, and walked around, and picked up lots of kitties, and smurgled them. I knew she was to be my mother (although she certainly didn't seem to!), so I followed her around. She finally noticed me, and picked me up. I was ecstatic! I purred and purred and purred at her! She said to Brian, "Oh, what a sweet little fella!"
But Brian said he thought it would be better if they adopted a female instead of a male. So, mommy put me down, and continued to look around. I wasn't so easily disuaded. I continued to follow her around, and she picked me up several times.
After they had been there for about an hour, the Humane Society people were getting ready to close, so mommy had to make a decision (or come back). While she and Brian were discussing which of the many kittens to get, I knew I had to take matters into my own paws! I hooked my claws into the bottom of mommy's sundress, and started to climb up the outside of her dress!
Well, when she and Brian saw this, they laughed, and they knew. Their decision was made!
Now you know how I came to live with my mother, you may be interested in how I spent my first night with her!
I arrived at my new home early in the evening, just in time for dinner! Even though I was just a tiny lad of 8 weeks, I was already a strapping 2.5 pounds (and today, I'm a perfect 19 pounds!). After a delicious dinner of kitten food, I aqcuainted myself with my new surroundings.
It was exhausting work! Around 10PM that night, my mother decided she was ready for bed. She brought a glass of wine into the bedroom and a book to read herself to sleep. Since she was my new human (and from the start, she was my human), I followed her into the bedroom.
I managed to crawl up into bed with her, and proceeded to stand on her chest, purring, kneading, and headbutting her. You see, I was so very happy to be in my new home. After all, my time was almost up at the Humane Society!
At first, she thought this was rather cute, and we had ourselves a fine smurgle. But she wanted to read and sleep, and she seemed to think I was interfering with this.
So, she placed me on the floor, no doubt expecting me to run off! But not me. I wanted to smurgle some more! So, I crawled back into bed with her, stood on her chest, kneading, purring, and headbutting!
She again placed me on the floor. (She's a slow learner, and I think that fact has already been established.)
Needless to say, this was a dance she and I performed for the next several hours. Finally, she looked at the clock, and it said it was 1AM, and she really needed to sleep, so she placed me in the bathroom, on a small, upholstered ottoman, to sleep.
I was so lonely!! I cried, and cried. And she did come back, but this time to give me a teddy bear to curl up with. I liked this bear, because he smelled like her, so I curled up with him, and slept the night in the bathroom.
I only had to sleep in the bathroom a few nights. Now, even though my mother and Brian split up a long time ago (and she says she got the better deal!), to this day, I still sleep with her every night.
And every morning, I wake her up before her alarm goes off, by curling up to her face and purring and kneading.
Welcome to the clubhouse for the SOBs! What are the SOBs, you ask? Why, we're the Spraying Orange Brothers!! I am the founder, and other members include my dear friends Bigman and Punkin.
We are distinguished orange gentlecats who enjoy a good spray! There's truly nothing like it in life.
If you would like to join our ranks, please email me! If you would like to suggest any activities, let us know!
Sign guestbook
View guestbook
