“Good kitty,” I remember saying in a soothing voice as we showed Mia around our house for the first time. We had set up our upstairs bathroom with an old pillow covered with a soft blue blanket for a kitty bed, a litter box in the bathtub, and all the cat toys we could find in our messy playroom. When she poked her head out of the box I remember shivering with excitement. A new cat!

Mia was only about one or two years old. My Mom was the first to encounter her. She was buying food for our other cat, Sam, at Petco. They have a few cages built into the wall, and on the weekends they bring in animals from a shelter and hope that shoppers will adopt and cat or dog and take them home. A few weeks later, she was at Petco again with my brother, Jackson, and noticed that Mia was still there. The next weekend, I believe, was the one on which we adopted her.

We brought my Grandma to get the new kitty. She lives in a retirement building, so she enjoys it when we take her out to do things. My brother and I got to hold Mia a little bit until finally the lady came from which we were to adopt Mia. We decided to keep the name Mia, and that her birthday would be July 4th. My brother, Jackson, and I were so excited. We skipped around the store and chose some new toys, none of which Mia plays with at all today. Finally we left the store.

After about a week she had discovered every corner of our house. She thoroughly enjoyed her new location. She loved climbing the wooden ladder to sleep on Jackson’s loft bed, and hiding behind the sofa in our living room. She was also quite curious about our other cat, Sam.

In November of 2007, Sam was still alive. He passed away the next March. However, he was a very old cat, and very grumpy at times. Mia really wanted to be his friend, but Sam was confused by the new beast in his territory. He was about sixteen years old, so playing with string and sprinting down the hall after a makeshift foil ball were completely out of his league. Instead, he would try to pick a fight against the new comer, which was not at all a brilliant idea. Mia had claws, and Sam didn’t. Mia had energy, and Sam didn’t. Mia was young, and Sam was old. It was obvious that Mia could, unfortunately, beat Sam any day. So, we had to constantly make sure they left each other alone.
One of my fondest memories of Mia is when my friend Mady Crouse came over to my house during the summer. Mady Crouse has been a really good friend sine third grade. We went to school together at Raleigh Hills, my old school. Among many other things, we decided to do a fashion show with Mia as our model. She was a good model as far as cats go, but she was still uncooperative. We photographed the different styles, and then chose our favorite three out of twenty or so total pictures. The winner was one of Mia in a swimsuit with yellow, orange, and pink Hawaiian flowers. We placed a purple necklace around her neck to complete the design. My personal favorite is called “Baby Mia”. It shows Mia dressed up as a baby, in a red and white striped top. She is lying in my old toy baby stroller and cuddled next to a tiny dalmation stuffed animal. I think this would probably be Mia’s favorite picture as well, because she really likes the baby stroller. Sometimes she will go out into our garage where we keep it and sleep for hours. Occasionally she will allow us to push her across the street to our neighbor’s house in it. Our neighbor, who is obsessed with cats, thought this was hilarious. Mia loved it! On a normal day Mia will sleep, eat, and clean herself on and off. She keeps herself very, very clean. However, about twice a day she gets really hyper.
One of her old habits was attacking a rug we used to have down our hall. She attacked it so much we had to get rid of it. She would run full speed down the hall and onto the rug so it would slide about a foot or so. Then, realizing that the rug was moving, she would think it was alive and attack it. It’s really funny to watch. She did this every day until we finally put the rug in the garage. Now she finds pleasure attacking anything that moves. Sometimes she’ll notice a moving spider and try to play with it. Once I found her sniffing a slug that had got in through the window. My dad and I nicknamed her Dinky, for all the weird things she does. It kind of fits.
Besides all the weird things she does, she is an amazing, lovable kitty. Adopting her is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to my family and me.
My brother would probably say the same thing. He loves Mia. Jackson rally likes to play vet with her and have Mia sleep in his loft bed. If I were a cat, I would want to sleep in the loft bed too. I would get to be way up high and stare down at people and things down below. She must feel powerful when she’s sleeping up there.
I hope to always remember the day I got Mia. It’s a really important memory because she’s changed my every day life. It’s definitely a change for the better.