Well, I got a CAT! I'm so excited about her. It's an amazing feeling having someone join my life. Granted, I hadn't thought about this at all until I had the mouse show up in my kitchen, but once I started thinking more about it the more I loved the idea. I was nervous to make this happen though, mostly because of my strange philosophical questions reverberating in my brain (i.e. "does this make me a cat person," "does this mean that I am defined by her," "does this mean I am no longer myself as an individual," "who am I as a person," etc. Yeah, I know it doesn't make much sense, but I never said I didn't have bizarre issues.) Additionally, I've always been a dog person and have wanted a dog so badly over the last several years, but simply can't have one in my small apartments. I gotta wait for a larger place for a dog.

Anyway, Jessie helped me go to the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and go through their wonderful building looking through selection of cats waiting for adoption. They have a terrific place that offers so much help to potential adopters, as well as a beautiful, clean, safe place for the animals. They had information up on the wall next to each animal to give some idea as to what the animal would be like in your home and life. It was very helpful. There were a lot of great cats, but I quickly fell in love with one. They let me go in with her and play and pet and such and it was a beautiful, instant bond. I've now cleaned up my home and arranged it for her. I have a feeling she's going to be very good for me in bringing my life consistency and fun every day. She's still getting used to the place and me, and vice versa, but it should be very comfortable for us both soon.

So then, names... Her name at the SPCA was "Minina," but that was just a name given to her at that place a month ago. She's a year and a half old and they said there would be no problems renaming her. I found the most wonderful site for cat names, www.kittynames.com (isn't the internet great?!) which gives numerous categorical ideas for names. Very helpful.

After much deliberation I chose the name "Amaya." I found this name through the search engine and apparently it's a person's name in both Japanese and Spanish. In Japanese it means "night rain," which I think is just beautiful. If it has a meaning in Spanish, I'd love to hear it, but it looks like it's just a formal name. I love the trilingual nature of the name, as well as the phonetic sound. So here's to Amaya joining my new home.

P.S. Let me know if you have any advice of getting Amaya to use the litter box rather than my bathtub. Oh, and P.S.S. she caught the mouse on her first night here. Ain't she wonderful? ;-)