Dad and I were talking about the cats last night. Apparently he's not a big fan of Shadow -- he calls her the cat equivalent of a yappy little dog. It's true, she does like to hear her own voice and will just yap, yap, yap... but I like it. My first cat was a tabby-Siamese cross (Sookie -- you could see the Siamese in the bone structure in her face, her jumping ability, and her voice), and I like a talkative cat.

He said that Digger meows when he wants something, not just for the hell of it. Well, I disagree with the second part; Digger can be just as vocal about nothing sometimes. Or, he's really vocal about wanting something he can't have -- like outside when it's -20 out or 3 in the morning, or food when it's not time for food (we're trying to get him and Shadow to lose weight).

Dad didn't remember that Chloe perched on everyone's shoulders -- he only remembered her doing it to UBFM, and the thing with Chloe was she liked to be on the tallest person. It meant that she'd go up on Mom's shoulders, then mine, then Dad's if he was standing nearby. The trick to remember was not to stand right next to the person she was perched on if you were taller. If you stood a little ways away, she wouldn't try to walk to you.

It's the second time Dad and I have wound up reminiscing about Chloe lately; I'm not sure why it is. It's been over a year since she disappeared. He and I both agreed that she mellowed considerably as she got older, and that's one reason why it was hard to lose her. She finally let me brush her a few times, and she wasn't as high-strung as she'd been as a kitten. I have a whole bunch of theories as to why she was high-strung and why she didn't like to be held, but that's for another time.

I really miss her. Part of me wishes that she'd died somehow, rather than have been taken in by another family. If she had been taken in by another family, that meant that I didn't look hard enough to find her. I feel guilty for having that thought, and I feel guilty for not having looked hard enough.

On a totally unrelated, more upbeat note, I like learning new things about my body. And Shadow's a doofus. She got up on the kitchen table or something and managed to get her head and one paw through the handle of a plastic grocery bag, so it was wrapped around her torso (Chloe used to have the same thing happen once in awhile with her collar). She was fine, she was just running around like a doofus.

Anyhow, off to the grind now. Yay for exams. :P