true confessions

I did something today that I swore I wouldn't do for a while longer. I went to visit the cat shelter where I got Juliet. I've been doing some research on other shelters, and this one seems to have the healthiest cats (one had a high ratio of FIV+ kitties, something I really don't want to take on, at least not right now.)

There was one kitty at the shelter that wanted me to love her and kept reaching her paws out and touching me. I scratched her for a while.

But I was actually attracted to another cat. Her name is Love Bug, a nickname I used to have for Ms. J. They let me pull up a chair and pet her in her cage (she didn't want to come out today). She was kind of shy at first, but sniffed me and then presented her head to be rubbed. She just purred and purred and rolled over and slithered around. She's tiny, maybe five pounds, about three years old, and has coloring like a brown tabby, but doesn't have any stripes on the main part of her body, just a beautiful speckled coat. Her head has tabby stripes, though.

Apparently, she was living in a house with *nine* other cats and wasn't "getting the attention she deserved," so her owner brought her in and surrendered her. It's hard to believe that anyone would surrender a cat like that.

I don't know if she's going to be "the one"; I'd love to hold off til after we return from our long trip. But she *could* be the one. There will be other ones, too, I know. It's early, but it felt like time to do some window shopping, at least.