Millie

Well, I'm sure I don't really need to go into how much I adore my Millie. That little furball has been my "best friend and #1 Cuddle Bug" since 1999. As my mom promised me on the day I got her, she never tells my secrets. She is truly the antidote to stress.

And I left her.

I'm not too worried about her. She is with my parents, and they love her and spoil her as much as I do. I just miss that companionship. I cried like a baby the day I left California, hugging her to me. I still tear up when I think about it. And then I laugh, thinking at how annoyed she was that I was crying on her.

Anyway, each night, as I go to bed, I miss my girl a little bit. Kathy, my landlady, has 5 cats and 4 dogs, and each one is sweet. I am winning them all over (except poor, shy Goodie, one of the cats). But they're not my cats.

Imagine my surprise on Saturday evening when Lucifer came into my bedroom, where I lay on the bed with my nose in a book. Lucifer is a big-boned black-and-white boy that meows like a girl. When he sleeps on the back of the sofa in the living room, he hugs the edge. He's very friendly but had made no overtures of close friendship with me until Saturday. I scratched his ears for a bit, and a low rumble started in his throat. Finally, I convinced him to join me on the bed, where he promptly started kneading a blanket at the foot of the bed and making it "just so." After a few minutes of flirting with me and arranging a comfy spot, he curled up and had a nap.

He snores.

I'm not kidding, he snores! It is the cutest damn thing.

So Luce and I spent a few hours on my bed, in quiet companionship, I with my book, he with his catnap. We would roll our eyes at each other when the dogs would randomly bark, before quietly going back to our pursuits.

Lucifer, being a cat, has no idea (nor would he care) how much comfort he brought me. He only knew I was a trustworthy soul who would let him curl up in peace, reaching down to gently scratch his ears every once in a while.

And...yesterday, as I chatted to my parents on the phone, Mom put the receiver up to my Millie's head. Millie heard me chattering, looked at Mom, and started to purr.