Gotcha Story

Mom found my baby pictures, so slowly she is scanning them into the computer to digitize them so they won't all fade. These pictures were taken with the traditional cameras that actually used film!

This is my first picture in our apartment in Clemson, SC, which shows my adorable little face! That is one of the reasons why she fell in love with me at first sight. Can you blame her? I began early helping Mom organize her papers, which has been a life-long job for me. She just has too many papers around all of the time and needs someone to help her.

In the beginning . . .

Mom used to have a gray kitty named Muff (see post from June 9, 2008) with her husband. Well, her husband decided to leave her after 21 years of marriage and he took Muff with him. Muff had been diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure and the doctor had only given her 6 months to a year, so mom told the man-husband that if she was going to lose them both, she would rather do it at the same time. Needless to say, Mom was very depressed. She tells me that it took her almost a year to stop looking for Muff to meet her at the door when she would come home. Muff lived to be 18 years old and went to the Bridge 6 months after I came to live with Mom.

Mom decided to change her life and left her full-time teaching job to go back to college and work on a Ph.D. She had been separated for about a year, had moved 3 hours away from home to go to college full time, and was feeling the itch to have another fur child in her life. She knew she wanted a really floofy kitty and starting looking in the paper for Persians, and especially Himmies! But every time she called, all of the kitties were gone.

One day (December 11, 1995) when she was visiting her parents in Columbia, SC, she stopped by a local pet shop just to see what type of kitties were there and how much they would cost - she swears she didn't have any intentions of buying that day. I had other plans.

She walked in the shop and guess what? There were some baby Persians in the shop. She told the polite lady that owned the store that she was interested in a female Persian. The lady told her that all of the solid Persians had already been adoped, but she had two Persians that were half red tabby Persian and half Himilayan and one was a girl. Mom asked if she could hold me and I put my plan in motion to go home with her. I immediately licked her face and began my loud purring. Mom walked around the store for about 1/2 hour with me in her arms and I felt so comfortable that I had found my human Mom that I fell asleep in her arms. That was all it took! The polite lady showed Mom my fur daddy (Little Tiger of Harbison) and my fur mommy (Chocolate Baby) and they were beautiful! The lady called me "Flower Face", but mom took one look at my sweet face and coloring and said, "Her name is Praline." Of course, she had to come up with a fancy name to complete my papers, so I became Miss Paula's Sweet Praline.

Mom took me home to Clemson, SC, where we lived for three years while she completed her Ph.D. I helped her organize (or reorganize) her papers for her dissertation and would put my stamp of approval (teeth marks) on math papers that she had to grade for the math classes she taught.

My first attempt at "bowing up"

My first toy - a ball that had another bright toy inside of it. Hadn't quite figured out what to do with it yet.

Playing with the ball on the kitches floor! That was fun. There was a hole under the cabinets in that apartment and I actually squeezed under it to get the ball, so Mom ended up putting up cardboard to block my entrance. I liked that dark space, but she was afraid I would get caught and she couldn't get to me.

My favorite toy was a shoe string. I carried that string all over the place. Hmmmm. Wonder what happend to that string?

Time to eat, Mom!

Tomorrow, I will share the adventures of my first vacation trip to my Mom's sister's house with more pictures.