Nocturne

After chatting about Dexter, I wanted you to meet Nocturne. (Well, meet her in a nondrugged state, unlike here.)

This is sober, honest.

Andrew is a cat person, and I am a dog person. Luckily, we both like both species, we just tend to gravitate toward different ones. I don't despise cats. I actually enjoy them quite a lot. Given the choice, however, I'm always going to pick a dog, and Andrew will always pick a cat.

Dexter is a little crazy, as I've mentioned, so we were nervous about how he'd react when we adopted a cat. We shouldn't have worried. They play together. Nocturne still has her claws--read about what declawing really is and it will change the way you view it--and she's never used them on him. When she gets tired of playing, she goes into the utility room where Dexter cannot follow and takes a break.

She's been known to wait at the bottom of the stairs and pounce on Dexter as he comes down. They also tear around the house after one another, Dexter lunging at her tummy while she bats him around with her front paws.

What are you looking at?

Nocturne was a year old when we adopted her, so she's spent most of her life with Dexter as her only non-human companionship. Andrew thinks she sometimes acts more like a dog than a cat. She'll sit at the window and bark at the birds. When we get home, she'll walk in front of us, then throw herself down with her paws in the air so we'll rub her tummy.

She's also a princess. She will wait until we walk into the door to use the litter box. She'll wait until we clean it, and then use it again. If we didn't come home, she'd probably explode. She drinks out of the back of the fish tank despite the availability of fresh, albeit non-fish-flavored water. She walks across our kitchen table even though she knows she's not supposed to and will get squirted with water.

It's difficult to stay mad at someone so cute though.

I am really grateful for our little family of Andrew, me, Dexter, and Nocturne. Sure, our house is covered in pet hair and we spend as much on their medical care and grooming as our own. It's absolutely worth it. Adopt a pet. Adopt two.