a little buddy of one’s own

This is Amarok: 

He is our cat and we love him very, very much.  He is sitting in our Ticket to Ride box, which is open because Mac and I are playing. 

Amarok likes to watch us play Ticket to Ride… well, he did at first.  The little plastic train stations were fun to knock off the table… 

… but it got old, and fast.  Ticket to Ride is no game for a cat!  Amarok wanted us to play with him! 

And we do, of course.  We don’t play Ticket to Ride with just each other ALL  the time.  We play with Amarok, with toy mice and dead leaves and bottle caps and anything that slides across the wood floor, and we even made our very own line of “feathers tied to yarn tied to a stick” toys, about which Amarok is simply gaga.  But for all our train stations to knock off tables and furry toy mice and feathers on sticks, we’re forever dropping the ball in one area: we’re not cats.  What Amarok needs most of all, we’ve decided, is a little buddy of his own. 

Enter Julius.

In the past couple weeks, Mac has spent countless hours on the phone making friends with the kitty adoption folks, and the two of us have met several adoptable kitties, discussing with Amarok at length after each visit the various merits of each.  After much deliberation and lots of listening to our hearts and guts, we picked one.  

Active but cuddly, discerning but friendly, wise for his young age but light-hearted at the same time, Julius seems to be the complete package, the most likely of all we visited to someday achieve a four foot vertical jump, and, in short, the perfect addition to our family. 

We’re taking him home today.

We will christen him “Rohn” and begin the process of taking excessive photos/videos and determining his favorite color feather for the new feather toy we will surely be making in his honor.  

Amarok is very excited.  He’s just not yet sure why… 

Tags: cats, ticket to ride