If you know me at all, you know that I absolutely love cats. LOVE. Not quite to the point of being on the road to crazy cat ladydom, but enough that I will yell out “kitty!” whenever I see one and likely try to pet it and get it to purr. That’s probably not something to go telling the world on your blog, but cats make me happy. So does photography. And so does taking pictures of cats.

I’ve actually never had a cat of my own, but this year I decided I was finally ready to adopt one. I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than my kitty soulmate, though! I started looking at shelters and thinking of names (for awhile I was set on naming her Chubby Checkers, though I can’t remember why exactly…). The plan was to hopefully adopt one this summer, in July or August after a jam-packed month of June. But hey, you can’t always plan when you’ll find your (kitty) soulmate! Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I learned that a friend of a friend had rescued a little tabby cat on the streets of Newark, and that she was so sweet and cute and desperately needed a home. There literally was no decision-making process, I just automatically made up my mind that I had to see her. I told myself that I’d think about it afterwards and if I wanted to take her, I’d wait a week or two until the dust started to settle in my hectic life. I also picked out a name for her before even meeting her: Chib Jr, after my family’s gorgeous tabby cat back home who’s my favorite cat of all-time.

Well, guess what happened? I went, I saw her, and I had to have her that night. We lugged her back to NYC in a cardboard box that she almost busted through at least 20 times on the train. She spent a week camping out in my bedroom while we kept her separate from my roommate’s cat and I tried to cram in her vet appointments to make sure she was healthy. She nearly escaped when she climbed out my window one day through a ripped screen while we were at work – thank god our neighbor saw her!

But oh, she’s so adorable! She purrs, she plays, she cuddles, she likes to lick my arms/hands and nibble on my hair. She often wakes me up at 5am to play (as if dragging a toy into bed at that hour is really going to get me up!). She’s the most easygoing, chill kitty I’ve ever seen. Yeah, she’s pretty much my kitty soulmate :) … and definitely worth the wait I’d say!

And with that, I present: Chib Jr!

(She’s probably about 6 months old here…)